Glycosyl Phosphatidylinositol (GPI) Anchor Synthesis Based on Versatile Building Blocks – Total Synthesis of a GPI Anchor of Yeast

Abstract

For the design of a synthesis of target molecule 1 the retrosynthetic analysis yielded building blocks 2–5, of which ceramide 2-phosphite derivative 2 and aminoethyl phosphite derivative 5 are known. The generation of α-glucosaminyl (16)inositol building block 3 was based on pseudodisaccharide 6 which was selectively benzoylated at 6b-O and then selectively benzylated at 3b-O to give 3. The synthesis of tetramannosyl building block 4 started from known ortho ester derivative 8 which was transformed into versatile mannosyl donors 13 and 18 and into acceptor 22. Reaction of 13 with 22 gave α-disaccharide 23, deacetylation and then mannosylation with 18 gave trisaccharide 25; ensuing deacetylation and mannosylation with 13 gave tetrasaccharide 27; deallylation, acetylation, regioselective removal of the anomeric O-acetyl group and treatment with CCl3CN/DBU afforded 4. Glycosylation of 3 with donor 4 led to pseudohexasaccharide 31 in high yield. Replacement of the O-acyl groups by O-benzyl groups and then exchange of the menthyloxycarbonyl group by an O-acetyl group gave 36 which enabled regioselective attachment of 2 and 5. To this end, the 6e-O-silyl group was removed and then the aminoethyl phosphate residue was attached with reagent 5 to give 38 in high yield. 1a-O-Deacetylation and then reaction with 2 afforded 40 as fully protected 1 which was liberated in two steps; treatment with acid removed all acid labile protective groups and finally catalytic hydrogenation afforded the desired GPI anchor 1 which could be fully structurally assigned.