Synthesis of photoactivable oligosaccharide derivatives from 1,2-cyclic carbamate building blocks and study of their interaction with carbohydrate-binding proteins

Despite the broad occurrence of carbohydrate-protein interactions in biology, the low binding affinities of such interactions hamper the characterization of carbohydrate binding sites in the absence of three-dimensional structural models. To allow the identification of proteins interacting with specific carbohydrate epitopes, we have developed new photoactivable oligosaccharide probes. Oligosaccharides containing the 1,2-cyclic carbamate group were attached to building blocks with a primary amino group to yield the corresponding urea derivatives. Cyclic carbamates of lactose, and 3- and 2'-fucosyl lactose, were used for the conjugation with building blocks containing photoactivable diazirine, benzophenone or aryl azido groups. The resulting oligosaccharide derivatives were tested for binding to Erythrina cristagalli lectin (ECL), Aleuria aurantia lectin (AAL) and Ulex europaeus agglutinin-I (UEA I). We found that ligands containing an aryl azido photoactivable group were successfully attached to lectins. The photoactivation reaction preserved lectin integrity, as no sign of protein degradation was visible. Mass spectrometric analysis confirmed the covalent binding of between one to three oligosaccharide probes, which matched with the expected carbohydrate-binding properties of the lectins tested. The conjugation of cyclic carbamate-derivatized oligosaccharides with photoactivable aryl azido groups thus represents a convenient approach to study protein-carbohydrate interactions.