Reactivity Tournament of Isothiocyanato-Functionalized Saccharides with 1,6-Diamino-3,6-oxaoctane

Summary.  Thiourea-bridged glycoclusters and glycodendrimers are described in the literature as mimetics of (oligoantennary) oligosaccharides to serve as high-affinity lectin ligands. In extension of this concept, the assembly of different, structurally varied isothiocyanato-functionalized sugar derivatives on an oligoamine scaffold would lead to novel mixed glycoclusters. To control this approach, the relative reactivities of the isothiocyanates used in the thiourea-bridging reaction have to be known. Therefore, competition experiments with six different sugar isothiocyanates were carried out using 1,8-diamino-3,6-dioxaoctane as a symmetrical difunctionalized core molecule. Reactivities were ranked on the basis of integration ratios in the ¹H NMR spectra. A first mixed thiourea-bridged glycocluster was successfully prepared. Received June 13, 2001. Accepted October 31, 2001