A stereoselective Koenigs–Knorr glycosylation reaction under the catalysis of urea is described. This method is characterized by urea‐mediated hydrogen‐bond activation and subsequent glycosylation ...with glycosyl chlorides or bromides. Excellent yields and high anomeric selectivity can be achieved in most cases. Moreover, the low α‐stereoselectivity of glycosylations observed when using perbenzylated glucosyl donors can be greatly improved by the addition of tri‐(2,4,6‐trimethoxyphenyl)phosphine (TTMPP).
Sugar, sugar: Stereoselective Koenigs–Knorr glycosylation under urea catalysis is described. This method is characterized by urea‐mediated hydrogen‐bond activation and subsequent glycosylation with glycosyl chlorides or bromides. Excellent yields and high anomeric selectivity can be achieved in most cases, and the α‐stereoselectivity when using perbenzylated glucosyl donors is greatly improved by the addition of TTMPP.
Carbohydrates are diverse bio-macromolecules with highly complex structures that are involved in numerous biological processes. Well-defined carbohydrates obtained by chemical synthesis are essential ...to the understanding of their functions. However, synthesis of carbohydrates is greatly hampered by its insufficient efficiency. So far, assembly of long carbohydrate chains remains one of the most challenging tasks for synthetic chemists. Here we describe a highly efficient assembly of a 92-mer polysaccharide by the preactivation-based one-pot glycosylation protocol. Several linear and branched oligosaccharide/polysaccharide fragments ranging from 5-mer to 31-mer in length have been rapidly constructed in one-pot manner, which enables the first total synthesis of a biologically important mycobacterial arabinogalactan through a highly convergent 31+31+30 coupling reaction. Our results show that the preactivation-based one-pot glycosylation protocol may provide access to the construction of long and complicated carbohydrate chains.
In this study, we report the design and fabrication of a novel biocompatible sponge with excellent antibacterial property, making it a promising material for wound dressings. The sponge is formed by ...grafting amoxicillin onto regenerated bacterial cellulose (RBC). It was observed that the grafted RBC could enhance the antibacterial activity against fungus, Gram-negative, and Gram-positive bacteria. The morphology of strains treated with the grafted RBC and fluorescent stain results further demonstrated the antibacterial ability of the fabricated sponge. Moreover, a cytocompatibility test evaluated in vitro and in vivo illustrates the nontoxicity of the prepared sponge. More importantly, the wound infection model reveals that this sponge can accelerate the wound healing in vivo. This work indicates the novel sponge has the huge potential in wound dressing application for clinical use.
Cancer is still one of the most serious threats to human worldwide. Aberrant patterns of glycosylation on the surface of cancer cells, which are correlated with various cancer development stages, can ...differentiate the abnormal tissues from the healthy ones. Therefore, tumor‐associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) represent the desired targets for cancer immunotherapy. However, these carbohydrate antigens may not able to evoke powerful immune response to combat with cancer for their poor immunogenicity and immunotolerance. Different approaches have been developed to address these problems. In this review, we want to summarize the latest advances in TACAs based anticancer vaccines.
Extracellular ATP and its ultimate degradation product adenosine are potent extracellular signaling molecules that elicit a variety of pathophysiological pathways in retina through the activation of ...P2 and P1 purinoceptors, respectively. Excessive build-up of extracellular ATP accelerates pathologic responses in retinal diseases, whereas accumulation of adenosine protects retinal cells against degeneration or inflammation. This mini-review focuses on the roles of ATP and adenosine in three types of blinding diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy (DR). Several agonists and antagonists of ATP receptors and adenosine receptors (ARs) have been developed for the potential treatment of glaucoma, DR and AMD: antagonists of P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) (BBG, MRS2540) prevent ATP-induced neuronal apoptosis in glaucoma, DR, and AMD; A1 receptor (A1R) agonists (INO-8875) lower intraocular pressure in glaucoma; A2A receptor (A2AR) agonists (CGS21680) or antagonists (SCH58261, ZM241385) reduce neuroinflammation in glaucoma, DR, and AMD; A3 receptor (A3R) agonists (2-Cl-lB-MECA, MRS3558) protect retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from apoptosis in glaucoma.
We report a novel and highly stereoselective electro‐2‐deoxyglycosylation from glycals. This method features excellent stereoselectivity, scope, and functional‐group tolerance. This process can also ...be applied to the modification of a wide range of natural products and drugs. Furthermore, a scalable synthesis of glycosylated podophyllotoxin and a one‐pot trisaccharide synthesis through iterative electroglycosylations were achieved.
Sweet dreams are made of this: A highly stereoselective electro‐2‐deoxyglycosylation from glycals was developed. This method features excellent stereoselectivity, scope, and functional‐group tolerance, and can also be applied to the modification of a wide range of natural products and drugs. Furthermore, a scalable synthesis of glycosylated podophyllotoxin and a one‐pot trisaccharide synthesis through iterative electroglycosylations were achieved.
A large quantity of polysaccharide‐derived conjugate vaccines have been developed to combat various pathogenic infections. Another prominent polysaccharide, heparin, is listed as an essential drug by ...the World Health Organization (WHO) to treat thrombus. One of their common problems is that they all derive from natural polysaccharides. Specifically, capsular polysaccharides are mainly obtained from bacterial fermentation and unfractionated heparin is extracted from animal tissues such as porcine mucosa. The quality of natural polysaccharides is inconsistent and traces of contamination would cause a disaster. By contrast, the use of chemical or chemoenzymatic methods could provide structurally homogeneous and quality‐controlled glycans. To date, large numbers of polysaccharide fragments and their analogues have been synthesized and evaluated. Some of them even showed comparable activities to their corresponding natural polysaccharides. Here, the latest advances in these synthetic glycan analogues ranging from carbohydrate‐based vaccines, heparin‐related therapeutics and glycomimetics of polysaccharides are summarized.
One common problem of polysaccharide conjugate vaccines and heparin is that natural polysaccharides are structurally heterogeneous and not quality controlled. As an alternative, synthetic glycan conjugates and heparin‐related anticoagulants could provide structurally defined and quality‐consistent molecules. In the future, it may be possible to use synthetic glycans and glycomimetics to replace natural polysaccharides.
Carbohydrates have gained a lot of appreciation in the past few decades due to their important roles in numerous biological events. Acquiring a structurally well‐defined carbohydrate compound is ...essential for the understanding of its functions. Although some innovative methods have been developed for the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides, glycan synthesis is in general still a time‐consuming and difficult work. Herein, we will introduce the preactivation‐based glycosylation strategy, which is an efficient protocol independent of the reactivity of glycosyl donor. This review will focus on summarizing the versatile applications of preactivation strategy in stereoselective glycosylation and one‐pot assembly of biologically important oligosaccharides and even polysaccharides.
What is the most favorite and original chemistry developed in your research group?
Preactivation‐based one‐pot glycosylation strategy and applications.
How do you get into this specific field? Could you please share some experiences with our readers?
I got into this field when I was a research associate in 1996. My supervisor, Prof. Chi‐Huey Wong, gave me a research topic for synthesis of oligosaccharide libraries. At that moment, as a beginner, I did not know too much carbohydrate chemistry, just to learn and to do it. The importance and challenge of carbohydrates attracted me.
What is the most important personality for scientific research?
Curiosity, passion, and creative thinking.
How do you supervise your students?
In my opinion, before the graduate students start a specific project, their experimental skills need to be well trained. During the period of graduate studies, the enhancement of abilities to analyze problems and to solve problems is very important. The graduate students should always keep an eye on the unusual experimental phenomena.
What's your hobbies?
Reading history books.
What is your favorite journals?
The journals publishing the latest research works in chemistry and medical science.
Saccharides are polyhydroxy compounds, and their synthesis requires complex protecting group manipulations. Protecting groups are usually used to temporarily mask a functional group which may ...interfere with a certain reaction, but protecting groups in carbohydrate chemistry do more than protecting groups usually do. Particularly, protecting groups can participate in reactions directly or indirectly, thus affecting the stereochemical outcomes, which is important for synthesis of oligosaccharides. Herein we present an overview of recent advances in protecting groups influencing stereoselectivity in glycosylation reactions, including participating protecting groups, and conformation-constraining protecting groups in general.
To address coupling motion issues and realize large constant force range of microgrippers, we present a serial two-degree-of-freedom compliant constant force microgripper (CCFMG) in this paper. To ...realize a large output displacement in a compact structure, Scott–Russell displacement amplification mechanisms, bridge-type displacement amplification mechanisms, and lever amplification mechanisms are combined to compensate stroke of piezoelectric actuators. In addition, constant force modules are utilized to achieve a constant force output. We investigated CCFMG’s performances by means of pseudo-rigid body models and finite element analysis. Simulation results show that the proposed CCFMG has a stroke of 781.34
${\unicodeTimes{x03BC}}\mathrm{m}$
in the X-direction and a stroke of 258.05
${\unicodeTimes{x03BC}}\mathrm{m}$
in the Y-direction, and the decoupling rates in two directions are 1.1% and 0.9%, respectively. The average output constant force of the clamp is 37.49 N. The amplification ratios of the bridge-type amplifier and the Scott–Russell amplifier are 7.02 and 3, respectively. Through finite element analysis-based optimization, the constant force stroke of CCFMG is increased from the initial 1.6 to 3 mm.