Neu5Ac2en1Me per-OAc, the fully protected glycal of sialic acid, is a key intermediate in the discovery of therapeutics and diagnostics, including anti-influenza drugs and proteolysis resistant peptidomimetic foldamers. The synthesis of this sialic acid derivative, however, still relies on standard sugar chemistry that utilizes multi-step methodologies. Herein we report a facile and highly efficient microwave-assisted preparation of Neu5Ac1Me using silica sulfuric acid (SSA) as solid-supported acid catalyst that is one- to two-orders of magnitude faster than standard procedures. We also describe the microwave-assisted and SSA-catalyzed one-pot, rapid, solvent free reaction that combines both peracetylation and β-elimination reactions in one step to generate the glycal from Neu5Ac1Me. We coined the term One-pot SSA-catalyzed Technology for β-Elimination Protocol (OneSTEP) to describe this least laborious, most efficient, and practical preparation to date of Neu5Ac2en1Me per-OAc in terms of yield, time, reagent cost, and waste generation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.