Chemical Synthesis of an Octasaccharide Derivative Related to Group B Streptococcus Cell-Wall Polysaccharide

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the major pathogen that causes invasive infectious diseases in neonates and infants. The development of preventive and therapeutic strategies against GBS infection has been becoming the most pressing subject worldwide. Group B carbohydrate (GBC), the group B-specific polysaccharide that distinguishes GBS with other streptococci species, has been identified as an attractive antigen for diagnosis and vaccine development because of its highly conservative tetra-antennary structure. In this paper, a highly convergent [3 + 5] glycosylation strategy for efficient synthesis of an octasaccharide derivative related to GBC oligosaccharide unit II has been developed. In this synthesis, each glycosylation reaction was efficiently constructed with glycosyl imidates, especially trifluoroacetimidate, as donors, and each glycosidic bond was stereoselectively controlled via the neighboring group participation effect of acyl group on the 2-O-position of imidate donors or the solvent effect of Et2O. Furthermore, the aminoethylphosphate group was smoothly installed on the 6-O-position of D-glucitol residue using the phosphoramidite method. After global deprotection, the target octasaccharide was successfully obtained from D-glucitol in 29 steps with an overall yield of 1.37%. The free amino group installed on the aminoethylphosphate spacer of the target molecule enables its modification with functionalized biomolecules for further biological studies.