The octasaccharide
1a, as shown in
Scheme 2, was designedly assembled
via [2 + 2 + 2 + 2] strategy that required disaccharide building blocks
2a, 3a, 4a, and
6a involved. Given that the construction of
α-galactosyl bond would be the most difficult task in the synthesis, we commenced with the synthesis of tetrasaccharide
13 first (
Scheme 2). Unfortunately, direct glycosylation of
6a and thioglycoside
4 under different catalysts and reaction conditions (Table S1 in Supporting information) proceeded inefficiently, which merely generated the desired
13 in 10%−20% yields. However, when changing to disaccharyl trichloroacetimidate
4a as glycosyl donor, the above glycosylation reaction produced
13 with a satisfying yield. Up to 65% yield of
13 could be achieved with triflic acid (TfOH) as the promotor in Et
2O solvent. The newly formed
α-galactosyl bond in
13 was readily judged from the small coupling constant (
3J1, 2 = 3.0 Hz) of H-1
Gal signal at
δ 5.10 ppm in
1H NMR spectrum. It should be noted here that
β-isomeric product was also observed in above [2 + 2] reaction but inseparable from
13. Thereafter, thiourea-promoted cleavage of chloroacetyl group (ClAc) [
18] on the mannosyl 2-O-postion furnished tetrasaccharide acceptor
14 in 85% yield, which was then glycosylated with imidate donor
2a (1.2 equiv.) in presence of catalytic amount of TfOH in Et
2O successfully afforded hexasaccharide
15 in 78% yield. All
α-glycosidic bonds in
15 were undoubtedly confirmed from the
1JC-1, H-1 coupling constants (> 169 Hz) between C-1s and H-1s in its
1H-coupled HSQC spectrum [
19,
20]. Similarly, trace amount of inseparable
β-isomer generated during the [4 + 2] glycosidation reaction. Next, treatment of
15 with CH
3ONa in CH
3OH smoothly provided 2-OH hexasaccharide acceptor
16 in excellent yield. The more active disaccharide imidate
3a was preferentially chosen here for further glycosylation. As expected, condensation of
16 and
3a (1.2 equiv.) under the promotion of TfOH accomplished perfectly the synthesis of fully protected octasaccharide
17 (85% yield). Again, the
1JC-1, H-1 coupling constants observed from
1H-coupled HSQC spectrum were all over 169 Hz, indicating the formation of
α-glycosidic bonds in
17. Finally, deacylation of
17 with CH
3ONa in CH
3OH, followed by Pd-catalyzed hydrogenolytic debenzylation and azide reduction in
t-BuOH−CH
2Cl
2−H
2O co-solvents (v/v/v, 20:10:1) furnished target octasaccharide
1a in 82% yield, after purification by size-exclusion chromatography on Sephedex G-10 column. Furthermore, global deprotection of
16 and
14 by Zempén condition and/or hydrogenolysis with 10% Pd/C as the catalyst generated the desired hexasaccharide
1b (91%) and tetrasaccharide
1f (89%), respectively, which were further purified on Sephedex G-10 column.