Free-radical hydrothiolation of the endocyclic double bond of enoses is reported. Reaction between 2-acetoxy-D-glucal and a range of thiols including amino acid, peptide, glycosyl thiols, and sugars with primary or secondary thiol functions gave S-linked α-glucoconjugates and S-disaccharides with full regio- and stereoselectivity. Addition of glycosyl thiols to a 2,3-unsaturated glycoside also proceeded with good selectivity and afforded a series of 3-deoxy-S-disaccharides.

Sugar-modified nucleosides are prime synthetic targets in anticancer and antiviral drug development. Radical mediated thiol-ene coupling was applied for the first time on nucleoside enofuranoside derivatives to produce a broad range of thio-substituted d-ribo, -arabino, -xylo and l-lyxo configured pyrimidine nucleosides. In contrast to the analogous reactions of simple sugar exomethylenes, surprisingly, hydrothiolation of nucleoside alkenes under the standard conditions of various initiation methods showed low to moderate yields and very low stereoselectivity. Optimizing the reaction conditions, we have found that cooling the reaction mixture has a significant beneficial effect on both the conversion and the stereoselectivity, and UV-light initiated hydrothiolation of C2'-, C3'- and C4'-exomethylene derivatives of nucleosides at -80 °C proceeded in good to high yields, and, in most cases, in excellent diastereoselectivity. Beyond the temperature, the solvent, the protecting groups on nucleosides and, in some cases, the configuration of the thiols also affected the stereochemical outcome of the additions. The anomalous l-lyxo diastereoselectivity observed upon the addition of 1-thio-β-d-gluco- and galactopyranose derivatives onto C4',5'-unsaturated uridines is attributed to steric mismatch between the d-ribo C4'-radical intermediates and the β-configured 1-thiosugars.

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Two pentasaccharide sulfonic acids that were related to the antithrombin-binding domain of heparin were prepared, in which two or three primary sulfate esters were replaced by sodium-sulfonatomethyl moieties. The sulfonic-acid groups were formed on a monosaccharide level and the obtained carbohydrate sulfonic-acid esters were found to be excellent donors and acceptors in the glycosylation reactions. Throughout the synthesis, the hydroxy groups to be methylated were masked in the form of acetates and the hydroxy groups to be sulfated were masked with benzyl groups. The disulfonic-acid analogue was prepared in a [2+3] block synthesis by using a trisaccharide disulfonic acid as an acceptor and a glucuronide disaccharide as a donor. For the synthesis of the pentasaccharide trisulfonic acid, a more-efficient approach, which involved elongation of the trisaccharide acceptor with a non-oxidized precursor of the glucuronic acid followed by post-glycosidation oxidation at the tetrasaccharide level and a subsequent [1+4] coupling reaction, was elaborated. In vitro evaluation of the anticoagulant activity of these new sulfonic-acid derivatives revealed that the disulfonate analogue inhibited the blood-coagulation-proteinase factor Xa with outstanding efficacy; however, the introduction of the third sulfonic-acid moiety resulted in a notable decrease in the anti-Xa activity. The difference in the biological activity of the disulfonic- and trisulfonic-acid counterparts could be explained by the different conformation of their L-iduronic-acid residues.