Glycosyl Imidates, 65. Efficient synthesis of the Lewis antigen X (Lex) family

Abstract

Abstracttert‐Butyldimethylsilyl 2‐azido‐4,6‐O‐benzylideneglucopyranoside 5 proved to be a versatile starting material for the synthesis of the Lex antigen family. 3‐O‐Fucosylation of 5, ensuing reductive benzylidene ring cleavage, and then 4‐O‐galactosylation afforded Lex trisaccharide building block 12 which was readily converted into trisaccharide donor 14α,β and into trisaccharide 3c‐O‐acceptor 16. Their reaction in acetonitrile as solvent at low temperatures (nitrile effect) afforded exclusively the β‐connected hexasaccharide 17, which was transformed via the same steps into hexasaccharide donor 20α,β and acceptor 22. The use of these building blocks and known lactose derivative 23b, and 3‐O‐benzoylprotected azidosphingosine 32 as acceptors led to ready formation of the target molecules. Thus, from 20α, β and 23b octasaccharide 24b was obtained which was converted via 25b and 26b into O‐unprotected octasaccharide 27; the derived O‐acyl‐protected donor 29bα was linked to 32, thus providing by application of the “azidosphingosine glycosylation procedure” dimeric Lex 1B. From 20α, β and 16 nonasaccharide 35a was obtained; its transformation via 36a and 37a into donor 38aα,β gave by reaction with 23b undecasaccharide 39a; the derived donor 43aα furnished by treatment with 32 trimeric Lex 1C. Similarly, from 20α, β and 22 dodecasaccharide 35b was generated which gave via 36b, 37b, and donor 38bα, β by reaction with 23b as acceptor tetradecasaccharide 39b; 39b, after transformation into the corresponding donor 43bα, β gave by treatment with 32 as acceptor tetrameric Lex 1D. Additionally, octasaccharide donor 29bα, β was attached to spacer 30, thus yielding spacer‐connected dimeric Lex antigen 2. magnified image