Natural anionic polysaccharides fucosylated chondroitin sulfates (FCS) from sea cucumbers attract great attention nowadays due to their ability to influence various biological processes, such as blood coagulation, thrombosis, angiogenesis, inflammation, bacterial and viral adhesion. To determine pharmacophore fragments in FCS we have started systematic synthesis of oligosaccharides with well-defined structure related to various fragments of these polysaccharides. In this communication, the synthesis of non-sulfated and selectively O-sulfated di- and trisaccharides structurally related to branching sites of FCS is described. The target compounds are built up of propyl β-d-glucuronic acid residue bearing at O-3 α-l-fucosyl or α-l-fucosyl-(1→3)-α-l-fucosyl substituents. O-Sulfation pattern in the fucose units of the synthetic targets was selected according to the known to date holothurian FCS structures. Stereospecific α-glycoside bond formation was achieved using 2-O-benzyl-3,4-di-O-chloroacetyl-α-l-fucosyl trichloroacetimidate as a donor. Stereochemical outcome of the glycosylation was explained by the remote participation of the chloroacetyl groups with the formation of the stabilized glycosyl cations, which could be attacked by the glycosyl acceptor only from the α-side. The experimental results were in good agreement with the SCF/MP2 calculated energies of such participation. The synthesized oligosaccharides are regarded as model compounds for the determination of a structure-activity relationship in FCS.

Derivatives of 2‐azido‐2‐deoxysugars are widely applied as precursor of 2‐amino‐2‐deoxysugars in the synthesis of various oligosaccharides of bacterial, fungal and mammalian origin. Heterogeneous or homogeneous azidophenylselenylation (APS) of glycals, i. e., reaction of glycals with Ph2Se2, PhI(OAc)2 and NaN3 or TMSN3 as azide radical donors, is a straightforward way to phenyl 2‐azido‐2‐deoxy‐1‐selenoglycosides that can be directly used as glycosyl donors. However, heterogeneous APS is characterized by insufficient reproducibility and scalability. We have studied the effect of reaction conditions on the product distribution in heterogeneous APS of 3,4,6‐tri‐O‐acetyl‐d‐galactal and found the conditions that enabled reliable preparation of crystalline phenyl 2‐azido‐2‐deoxy‐1‐seleno‐α‐d‐galactopyranoside triacetate in yield of 58 % on the 3.7 mmol scale. APS of 3,4,6‐tri‐O‐acetyl‐d‐glucal under those conditions produced a ∼1 : 1 mixture of phenyl 2‐azido‐2‐deoxy‐1‐seleno‐α‐d‐gluco‐ and mannopyranosides in total yield of 78 %. Acetoxyphenylselenylation of differently protected galactals and 3,4,6‐tri‐O‐acetyl‐d‐glucal under the action of Ph2Se2 and PhI(OAc)2 has been shown to be a convenient method for the synthesis of 1‐O‐acetyl‐2‐seleno‐2‐deoxy derivatives, valuable intermediates in chemistry of 2‐deoxysugars. 2‐Seleno‐2‐deoxy sugars were characterized in detail by NMR data including 77Se chemical shifts and nJSe−H coupling constant values.

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