title: Mechanistic studies and methods to prevent aglycon transfer of thioglycosides.
abstract: Thioglycosides have been employed extensively for the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides, carbohydrate libraries, and mimetics of O-glycosides. While very useful, aglycon transfer is a problematic side reaction with thioglycosides. In this paper, a series of mechanistic studies are described. The aglycon transfer process is shown to affect both armed and disarmed thioglycosides, cause anomerization of the carbon-sulfur bond of a thioglycoside, and destroy the product of a glycosylation reaction. The results indicate that the aglycon transfer process can be a major problem for a wide range of thioglycosides. This side reaction is especially important to consider when carrying out complex reactions such as solid-phase glycosylations, one-pot or orthogonal multicomponent glycosylations, and construction of carbohydrate libraries. To prevent transfer, a number of modified aglycons were examined. The 2,6-dimethylphenyl (DMP) aglycon was found to effectively block transfer in a variety of model studies and glycosylation reactions. The DMP group can be installed in one step from a commercially available thiol (2,6-dimethylthiophenol) and is useable as a glycosyl donor. On the basis of these features, the DMP group is proposed as a convenient and improved aglycon for thioglycosides.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, Center for Cancer Research, NCI-Frederick, 376 Boyles Street, Building 376, Room 109, Frederick, Maryland 21702, USA.
authors.forename: Zhitao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jeffrey C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gildersleeve
mesh_terms: D004735:Energy Transfer; D006031:Glycosylation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013865:Thioglycosides / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D009844:Oligosaccharides; D013865:Thioglycosides