Development of α-Selective Glycosylation for the Synthesis of Deoxyfluorinated TN Antigen Analogues

GMMA decorated with mucin 1 Tn/STn mimetics elicit specific antibodies response and inhibit tumor growth

Carbohydrate-based therapeutic vaccines are actively pursued as targeted immunotherapy to treat cancer. Aberrant glycosylation is indeed of paramount importance in tumors, leading to the formation of "neo-epitopes", known as tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs), crucial in cancer onset, development and spread. Accordingly, the over-simplified mucin-type O-glycans Tn and STn have been confirmed among the most promising candidates for the development of cancer vaccines. In this work, we first propose genetically manipulated bacteria outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), namely GMMA, as a vaccine formulation platform to display glycan antigens. GMMA were glycosylated with multiple copies of structurally locked Tn mimetic or STn mimetic as cancer vaccine prototypes. These constructs, in non-adjuvanted formulations, showed sounding immunogenic properties in vivo and impressive efficacy in a mouse model of aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. This example of tailor-made therapeutic vaccine might revolutionize the approach to cancer therapy.

Improved Triplex-Forming Isoorotamide PNA Nucleobases for A-U Recognition of RNA Duplexes

Four new isoorotamide (Io)-containing PNA nucleobases have been designed for A-U recognition of double helical RNA. New PNA monomers were prepared efficiently and incorporated into PNA nonamers for binding A-U in a PNA:RNA2 triplex. Isothermal titration calorimetry and UV thermal melting experiments revealed slightly improved binding affinity for singly modified PNA compared to known A-binding nucleobases. Molecular dynamics simulations provided further insights into binding of Io bases in the triple helix. Together, the data revealed interesting insights into binding modes including the notion that three Hoogsteen hydrogen bonds are unnecessary for strong selective binding of an extended nucleobase. Cationic monomer Io8 additionally gave the highest affinity observed for an A-binding nucleobase to date. These results will help inform future nucleobase design toward the goal of recognizing any sequence of double helical RNA.

Recent Advances in Chemical Synthesis of Amino Sugars

Amino sugars are a kind of carbohydrates with one or more hydroxyl groups replaced by an amino group. They play crucial roles in a broad range of biological activities. Over the past few decades, there have been continuing efforts on the stereoselective glycosylation of amino sugars. However, the introduction of glycoside bearing basic nitrogen is challenging using conventional Lewis acid-promoted pathways owing to competitive coordination of the amine to the Lewis acid promoter. Additionally, diastereomeric mixtures of O-glycoside are often produced if aminoglycoside lack a C2 substituent. This review focuses on the updated overview of the way to stereoselective synthesis of 1,2-cis-aminoglycoside. The scope, mechanism, and the applications in the synthesis of complex glycoconjugates for the representative methodologies were also included.

The Synthesis and Glycoside Formation of Polyfluorinated Carbohydrates

Fluorinated carbohydrates have found many applications in the glycosciences. Typically, these contain fluorination at a single position. There are not many applications involving polyfluorinated carbohydrates, here defined as monosaccharides in which more than one carbon has at least one fluorine substituent directly attached to it, with the notable exception of their use as mechanism-based inhibitors. The increasing attention to carbohydrate physical properties, especially around lipophilicity, has resulted in a surge of interest for this class of compounds. This review covers the considerable body of work toward the synthesis of polyfluorinated hexoses, pentoses, ketosugars, and aminosugars including sialic acids and nucleosides. An overview of the current state of the art of their glycosidation is also provided.

The effect of deoxyfluorination and O-acylation on the cytotoxicity of N-acetyl-D-gluco- and D-galactosamine hemiacetals

Fully acetylated deoxyfluorinated hexosamine analogues and non-fluorinated 3,4,6-tri-O-acylated N-acetyl-hexosamine hemiacetals have previously been shown to display moderate anti-proliferative activity. We prepared a set of deoxyfluorinated GlcNAc and GalNAc hemiacetals that comprised both features: O-acylation at the non-anomeric positions with an acetyl, propionyl and butanoyl group, and deoxyfluorination at selected positions. Determination of the in vitro cytotoxicity towards the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer and HEK-293 cell lines showed that deoxyfluorination enhanced cytotoxicity in most analogues. Increasing the ester alkyl chain length had a variable effect on the cytotoxicity of fluoro analogues, which contrasted with non-fluorinated hemiacetals where butanoyl derivatives had always higher cytotoxicity than acetates. Reaction with 2-phenylethanethiol indicated that the recently described S-glyco-modification is an unlikely cause of cytotoxicity.