Search

A new glycosylation method promoted by visible light with 3,5-dimethoxyphenyl glycoside as the donor was developed. This protocol delivers both O-glycosides and N-glycosides in moderate to excellent yields using a wide range of O-nucleophiles and nucleobases as the glycosyl acceptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diversity-oriented synthetic strategy was developed for the total synthesis of kainoid amino acids, which led to the enantioselective synthesis of (−)-kainic acid and the first total synthesis of (+)-acromelic acid C. Rh(i)-catalyzed asymmetric enyne cycloisomerization served as the key reaction in this strategy for the rapid construction of highly functionalized lactam, and the resulting vinyl acetate moiety was further utilized as a versatile building block for the installation of both isopropylidene and 2-pyridone units existing in natural kainoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of phosphorescent Au(i) bis(N-heterocyclic allenylidene) complexes, namely [Au(=C=C=CR1R2)2]+X−, were synthesized and structurally characterized. These organometallic complexes exhibit panchromatic transient absorption upon electronic photo-excitation and can self-organize into lyotropic chromonic mesophases in aqueous solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under pre-activation glycosylation conditions, the 4,6-di-O-acetyl-N-acetyloxazolidinone protected donor afforded either excellent β- or α-stereoselectivity simply by means of the addition of hindered base TTBP or the absence of base, leading to the controllable stereochemistry of coupling reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bergenin, which is isolated from Bergenia species, exhibits various pharmacological properties. In the search for new types of immunosuppressants, a series of bergenin derivatives were designed and synthesized, and their immunosuppressive effects were evaluated by the CCK-8 assay. The experimental data demonstrated that compounds 7 and 13 showed the strongest inhibition effects on mouse splenocyte proliferation (IC 50 = 3.52 and 5.39 μM, respectively). Further studies revealed that the inhibitory effect may come from the suppression of both IFN-γ and IL-4 cytokines. Alkylated derivatives of bergenin with n -hexyl and n -heptyl on the two phenolic hydroxyl groups showed better inhibitory activities. The hydrophobicity of bergenin derivatives, the configuration of the 4-OH in bergenin, and the ability to form hydrogen bonds of the substituents on the C -4 position are important to the immunosuppressive activity. This work proved that the modifications of bergenin may represent a new route to the discovery of a new class of immunosuppressive agents., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Globo H is a tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen (TACA), which serves as a valuable target for antitumor vaccine or cancer immunotherapies. However, most TACAs are T-cell-independent, and they cannot induce powerful immune response due to their poor immunogenicity. To address this problem, herein, several Globo H analogues with modification on the N -acyl group were prepared through a preactivation-based glycosylation strategy from the non-reducing end to the reducing end. These modified Globo H derivatives were then conjugated with carrier protein CRM197 to form glycoconjugates as anticancer vaccine candidates, which were used in combination with adjuvant glycolipid C34 for immunological studies. The immunological effects of these synthetic vaccine candidates were evaluated on Balb/c mice. The results showed that the fluorine-modified N -acyl Globo H conjugates can induce higher titers of IgG antibodies that can recognize the naturally occurring Globo H antigen on the surface of cancer cells and can eliminate cancer cells in the presence of a complement, indicating the potential of these synthetic glycoconjugates as anticancer vaccine candidates., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Methods for trifluoromethylthiolation are very limited. To tackle this problem, a mild and efficient approach to the 2-trifluoromethylthiolation of glycals has been developed. This protocol employed N-trifluoromethylthiosaccharin as the trifluoromethylthiolating reagent, TMSCl as the activator, and DBU as the base, affording 2-trifluoromethylthioglycals in good yields. These trifluoromethylthiolated carbohydrates may benefit the development of carbohydrate-based drugs.

An efficient aqueous Wittig reaction was enabled on protein bioconjugation for the first time. By investigating the reaction on small molecules, peptides, and proteins, a site-specific reaction targeting "aldehyde tag" was presented. A variety of functional groups could be introduced into the protein of interest.

A series of N-substituted ε-hexonolactams have been designed and prepared by a concise route with a tandem ring-expansion reaction as the key step. Some of the N-substituted ε-hexonolactams show better enhancements to N370S mutant β-glucocerebrosidase activity than NB-DNJ and NN-DNJ. Both the experimental results and computational studies highlight the importance of the carbonyl group for stabilizing protein folds in the mutant enzyme. The structure-activity relationships are also discussed. These novel N-alkylated iminosugars are promising pharmacological chaperones for the treatment of N370S mutant Gaucher disease., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012)

O,O-Dimethylthiophosphonosulfenyl bromide (DMTPSB) in combination with silver triflate provides a powerful thiophilic promoter system. Both "armed" and "disarmed" thioglycoside glycosyl donors can be activated to form glycosidic linkages efficiently by the pre-activation protocol. The usefulness of this new promoter is illustrated by a successful iterative one-pot oligosaccharide assembly.

Several iminosugar-based uridine diphosphate galactose (UDP-Gal) mimetics 1-4 including d- and l-epimers were designed and synthesized by concise routes, and these synthetic compounds were evaluated for the inhibition of α-1,3- and β-1,4-galactosyltransferases in vitro. The experimental data demonstrated that l-epimer 2 displayed the strongest inhibitory activity with moderate selectivity against α-1,3-galactosyltransferase.

A facile, versatile and stereoselective synthesis of bicyclic polyhydroxylated alkaloids as castanospermine analogues is described. The synthetic route started from methyl pyranosides. The key steps involved a high-yielding expeditious one-pot tandem reaction from alkenes to N-substituted delta-lactams. The delta-lactams were stereoselectively vinylated to give the dienes, which were followed by the ring-closing metathesis to produce the cyclized products. The functional group transformations of the resulting bicyclic compounds furnished diverse polyhydroxylated alkaloids in good yields.

Neamine is normally found as a core structure of aminoglycoside antibiotics. In order to understand the relationship between the antibiotic activity and the configurations of the functional groups of neamine, a series of novel neamine analogues with functional group manipulations on the 2-deoxystreptamine (2-DOS) ring or the sugar ring were designed and synthesized. The synthetic approach involved the construction of 2-DOS derivatives by catalytic Ferrier II rearrangement, stereo- and regio-selective functional group transformations, glycosyl coupling reaction, and global deprotection. Of the synthetic neamine analogues, four compounds showed comparable 16S rRNA binding affinities with neamine, whereas they displayed lower binding affinities towards 18S rRNA than neamine, implying a lower toxicity to mammals. This strategy might have applications in the chemical synthesis of other neamine derivatives and new aminoglycoside antibiotics with improved biological activities.

The Heck coupling of aryl iodides with pyranoid glycals using a catalytic amount of Pd(OAc)(2) to form pyranoid aryl C-glycosides has been achieved. The reaction takes place smoothly in the presence of Ag(2)CO(3) and Cu(OAc)(2) (or DMSO) in acetonitrile. This arylation process, which occurs in a highly regio- and stereo-selective manner, provides a simple, mild, and efficient approach to the synthesis of aryl 2-deoxy-C-glycopyranosides.

Under pre-activation glycosylation conditions, the 4,6-di-O-acetyl-N-acetyloxazolidinone protected donor afforded either excellent beta- or alpha-stereoselectivity simply by means of the addition of hindered base TTBP or the absence of base, leading to the controllable stereochemistry of coupling reactions.

Saccharide synthesis is a formidable task for synthetic chemists. Although in recent years many advances have been made in this area, development of more convenient and efficient strategies for oligosaccharide synthesis is still in great demand. This review focuses on one of these new strategies--the one-pot sequential glycosylation approach as a potent tool for oligosaccharide assembly.