Ulosonic acid chemical synthesis

By analogy with the synthesis of /V-acetylneuraminic acid,63 di-A-acetyl derivatives of 5,7-diamino-3,5,7,9-tetradeoxynon-2-ulosonic acids could be obtained by condensation of 2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxyhexoses with oxaloacetic acid under basic conditions. Four chiral centers in the C precursors, C-2 C-5, correspond to the centers C-5-C-8 in the target C9 products, and the fifth asymmetric center, C-4, is formed upon condensation. At present, derivatives of twelve 2,4-diamino-2,4,6-trideoxy-hexoses with the d-gluco, o-manno, L-allo, r>-galacto, D- and L-altro, D- and L-talo, D- and l-gulo, D- and L-ido configurations have been prepared by multistep chemical syntheses.11,17,18,64,65... 

Development of the chemical synthesis of ulosonic acids which mimics the enzymatic condensation is an interesting target [70]. As a model a reaction leading to KDO 8-phosphate (22) has been evaluated. In this reaction mediated by KDO 8-P synthetase D-arabinose 5-phosphate (A5P, 21) is reacted with phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) (Scheme 7) [71]. 

The introduction of the a-keto acid function on the way to the ulosonic acids is a main problem of their syntheses. By analogy with the biosynthetic pathway, the aldol reaction between sugar aldehydes and a pyruvate equivalents seems to be the most simple and versatile. As it has been demonstrated by Comforth [74] in the first chemical synthesis, the reaction of arabinose and oxalacetic acid as pyruvate equivalent, followed by decarboxylation afforded KDO, albeit in low yield. This condensation has been optimized by use of Ni(II) catalyst for the decarboxylation [75], In this case, reaction of D-mannose and oxalacetic acid gave KDN (11) and its D-manno epimer 37 in 70% yield [75] (Scheme 12). 

All previously described approaches to 3-deoxy-2-ulosonic acids started from advanced carbohydrate precursors, and thus they are not easily applicable to the synthesis of structurally diverse analogues. This concerns chemical syntheses relying on sugar-derived stereocenters and enzymatic ones, providing only very limited access to some naturally occurring compounds. In contrast, de novo syntheses starting from simple, achiral compounds offer much more flexible alternative approaches to synthesis of unnatural ulosonic acid analogues. 

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