N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) are efficient catalysts for transesterification/acylation reactions involving secondary alcohols. The catalytic transformations are carried out employing low catalyst loadings in convenient reaction times at room temperature.
Starting from peracetylated chloro- or bromo-glycosyl donors of N-acetylneuraminic acid, N-acetylglucosamine, glucose and lactose, the corresponding p-formylphenyl glycosides were synthesized stereospecifically under phase transfer catalysed conditions at room temperature in yields of 38-67%. After Zemplén de-O-acetylation, the formyl groups were directly and chemoselectively coupled to the lysine residues of bovine serum albumin by reductive amination using sodium cyanoborohydride. The conjugation reactions were followed as a function of time and under a series of different molar ratios of the reactants to provide glycoconjugates of varying degree of antigenicities. Thus, carbohydrate protein conjugates were made readily available using essentially two key reactions.
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