Glycosyl electrophilic activation

Scheme 3.1 Electrophilic activation of hemiacetals for dehydrative glycosylation.

Kusumoto and coworkers have found that the treatment of hemiacetal 1 with trifluoro- or trichloroacetic anhydride 94 (1 equiv) and trimethylsilyl perchlorate (0.2 equiv) selectively provides the corresponding anomeric ester intermediate 91 [152], Hemiacetal acylation occurs even in the presence of the alcohol acceptor. With Lewis acid assistance, the glycosyl ester intermediate is displaced to provide disaccharide products in good yields. This transformation allowed the synthesis of disaccharides 98 (81%) and 99 (91%). In some cases, acetic anhydride has been used as the electrophilic activator of hemiacetal donors and the reaction with thiol acceptors yields S-linked glycosides [153,154],... 

The galactosyl glycal 72 was bound to solid phase via a silyl ether linker. Epoxidation of the glycal using 2,2-dimethyldioxirane and subsequent electrophilic activation of the epoxide resulted in the glycosylation of 3,4-di-O-benzyl glucal 73. After acetylation of the product, the polymer-linked trisaccharide 74 was obtained. 

Silicon presents an attractive option among eledrophilic activating and dehydrating agents of hemiacetals because of the wide commercial availability of eledrophilic silicon sources. The two main classes of silicon electrophiles used, namely silyl halides and silyl sulfonates, have been demonstrated to promote a variety of glycosylations including some examples of oligosaccharide synthesis. 

The first direct dehydrative glycosylation promoted by sulfur electrophiles was reported by Leroux and Perlin [105]. In this reaction (Scheme 3.9), activation of... 

In an extension beyond hetaryl onium salt promoted hemiacetal activation, Ishido and coworkers have reported the carbodiimide activation of hemiacetals [141]. In the method (Scheme 3.13), the hemiacetal donor 1 is treated with a carbodiimide electrophile 83 and copper(I) chloride to provide glycosyl isourea intermediate 85. Highly susceptible to hydrolysis, the isourea 85 was not isolated but could be detected by 13C NMR and IR spectroscopy [142,143], Accordingly, the reaction between intermediate 85 and the glycosyl acceptor (NuH) provides glycoside product 3, along with urea by-product 84. 

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