Abstract:
Future progress in the field of glycobiology depends crucially on the availability of exactly defined, i.e. synthetically prepared compounds. In order to open access to structure-activity-studies of compound collections of structurally diverse oligosaccharides or glycoconjugates the development of efficient protocols for synthesis is required. Thus, the straightforward approach leading to carbohydrates of medicinal significance can be automated. Under consideration of these requirements, the thesis at hand deals with the development of new strategies for the polymer-supported synthesis of carbohydrates for the parallel construction of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates.
The first part of the thesis describes the development of the TAL-system (trimellitic anhydride linker) as a new linker for solid-phase chemistry in polymer gels. It consists in the combination of two protective groups which are stable under glycosylation conditions, the phthalimide- and the benzyl-type protecting groups which both proved to be of value in the solution synthesis of sugars. Starting from polymer supported phthalic anhydride, appropriate orthogonal protocols for immobilization and product release of amines were developed and optimized for the intended purpose of preparing aminoglycoconjugates. Product release was achieved by nucleophiles or by making use of a reaction sequence of borohydride reduction and subsequent lactonization, which adds the properties of a safety-catch linker to the TAL-system.
In the second part of the thesis a further strategy of solid-supported synthesis was developed, the hydrophobically assisted switching phase (HASP) synthesis, a phase-labeling technique. This new concept in the field of phase-trafficking enables a chemist to both, perform a synthesis in a solid-supported manner and in solution at any point of a multistep synthesis, since the immobilization of compounds is achieved reversibly by a hydrophobic label. The HASP-strategie was realized with dilipids as phase labels which were found to be considerably more hydrophobic than comparable monolipids. After suitable protocols for the reversible and quantitative immobilization to RP-18 silica as carrier material were developed, a bis-n octadecyl benzyl alcohol label was designed as a glycosylation anchor. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of HASP-synthesis, this anchor compound was employed for multistep oligosaccharide synthesis. Glycosylation steps were performed in solution whilst all protective group removal steps were conducted solid-supported. The HASP-synthesis of a pentasaccharide (12 consecutive steps) was achieved with an excellent yield of 93.6 % per step, which clearly emphasizes the efficiency of the new method .
The third and central part of the thesis describes the parallel application of HASP synthesis for the preparation of structural variations of an inflammatoric active rhamnolipid in order to clarify its mode of action. Being glycodilipids, these target compounds bear a dilipid-structure adapted as an intrinsic phase label for the immobilization in a hydrophobic phase. Tailor-made trichloroacetimidate rhamnose-donors and a multitude of enantiomerically pure lipid building blocks were prepared and devoted in the construction of a focused library of rhamnolipids by means of the HASP-method. The repetitive HASP steps could again be conducted in nearly quantitative yields. Thus, the successful application of the HASP-strategy allowing the highly efficient parallel synthesis of pure glycolipids definitely demonstrates the capability of the newfound phase labelling method.
Completing the thesis, the last chapter deals with the immunological and biophysical characterization of the focused rhamnolipid library. Very active non-natural occuring inflammatoric rhamnolipids could be discovered by TNFalpha-assays and structure-activity-conclusions were made. Performing FRET-measurements, a non-specific mode of action of the highly detergent-like rhamnolipids could be excluded. The discovered structural requirements for inflammatoric response proved to be very restrictive indicating a rather selective mode of action depending crucially on the lipid-moiety. Thus, new insights to the modulation of the immune system by the class of small rhamnolipids could be contributed.