Synthesis and biological evaluation of a new class of glycoconjugated disulfides that exhibit potential anticancer properties.

A synthetic strategy, based on the in situ generation of sulfenic acids and their thermolysis in the presence of thiols, was developed for obtaining a collection of polyvalent disulfides in which a benzene scaffold accommodates two or three flexible arms connecting saccharide moieties. Targeting carbohydrate metabolism or carbohydrate-binding proteins may constitute important approaches in the discovery process of new therapeutic anticancer agents. Therefore, a preliminary screening to ascertain the cytostatic/cytotoxic potential of this new class of enantiopure glycoconjugated disulfides has been conducted. Among them, products with two disulfide arms, harbouring galactose rings, induced high levels of apoptosis on U937 histiocytic lymphoma cells, but lower levels of cell death on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors. Further experiments indicated that apoptosis induced by these glycoconjugated bis(disulfides) in U937 cells corresponds to the Bcl-2-sensitive, intrinsic form of apoptotic cell death. The bioinvestigation was extended to a panel of human cancer cell lines with different levels of malignancy and resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. Compounds under study proved to induce detectable levels of cell death towards all the tested cancer cell lines.

Synthesis and biological testing of thioalkane- and thioarene-spaced bis-beta-D-glucopyranosides.

A three-step synthesis of bis-beta-D-glucopyranosides containing thioalkane or thioarene spacers of different length and flexibility is described. The key-step reaction allows an easy modulation of final saccharidic products so that a library of molecules with different glycosidic residues and spacers can be obtained. Two of the new thioarene-spaced bis-beta-D-glucopyranosides endow with a specific cytotoxic potential. A more detailed investigation of one of the two compounds ascertains that this effect is attributable to induction of cell death by apoptosis.

Synthesis and Asymmetric Diels-Alder Reactions of Enantiopure 3-(Alkylsulfinyl)-1-methoxy-1,3-butadienes.

Simple syntheses of enantiopure (E)- and (Z)-3-(alkylsulfinyl)-1-methoxy-1,3-butadienes 2and 3 were provided by the addition of (1S)-isoborneol-10-sulfenic and (S)-phenyl-2-hydroxyethanesulfenic acids 8 to (E)- and (Z)-1-methoxybut-1-en-3-ynes (9) and (10). These additions proceeded with asymmetric induction, the extent of which depended upon the nature of the chiral hydroxyalkyl group. Cycloadditions of methyl acrylate to the enantiopure dienes proceeded with complete regioselectivity and very high stereoselectivity when catalyzed by lithium perchlorate or zinc chloride in dichloromethane. The chirality at sulfur controlled the diastereofacial selectivity in these Diels-Alder cycloadditions.

L-cysteine, a versatile source of sulfenic acids. Synthesis of enantiopure alliin analogues.

[reaction: see text] l-Cysteine is a stimulating starting product for the generation of transient sulfenic acids, such as 4, 6, 9, and 15, which add to suitable acceptors, allowing formation of sulfoxides showing a biologically active residue. These sulfoxides are easily isolated in enantiomerically pure form. For instance, N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-l-cysteine methyl ester (1a) furnished in few steps sulfenic acid 9a, which was readily converted into (R,S(S))-(2-tert-butoxycarbonylamino-2-methoxycarbonyl-ethylsulfinyl)ethene (22), the methyl ester of Boc-protected nor-alliin. Moreover, the addition of 9a to 2-methyl-1-buten-3-yne has led to a sulfur epimeric and separable mixture of (R)-2-(2-tert-butoxycarbonylamino-2-methoxycarbonyl-ethylsulfinyl)-3-methyl-buta-1,3-dienes 10a and 11a, still possessing a "masked" sulfenic acid function, producible from their cysteine moieties once the dienes have been converted into the desired derivatives.

Sulfenic acids in the carbohydrate field. An example of straightforward access to novel multivalent thiosaccharides.

[reaction: see text] Both anomers of O-protected 1-thio-D-gluco- and -D-mannopyranoses were selected to provide the substrates for developing a smooth and general methodology that gives access to anomeric glycosulfoxides. The behavior of the corresponding beta-D-galactopyran derivatives was also investigated. 2-[1-[(2,3,4,6-Tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl)sulfinyl](1-methyl)ethyl]malonic acid diethyl esters 4 were thermolyzed in refluxing dichloromethane for generating 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranose-1-sulfenic acid (8), in the presence of 2-propynyl beta-d-glucopyranoside tetraacetate (32). The syn-addition of transient 8 onto the triple bond of 32 furnished 2-[(2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl)sulfonyl]-2-propenyl beta-d-glucopyranoside tetraacetate (34), after m-CPBA oxidation of the corresponding sulfinyl epimeric mixture 33. This synthetic pathway appears particularly attractive since it represents an example of a mild and versatile approach to thiodisaccharides of foreseeably significant biological behavior. Various carbohydrate-derived sulfenic acids, different in glycosyl moiety and sulfenic function positioning, and various alkynylated carbohydrates can be adopted as combining units in the synthesis of alkene-linked multivalent thiosaccharides.

Sulfenic acids in the carbohydrate field. Synthesis of transient glycosulfenic acids and their addition to unsaturated acceptors.

A new method is described for building up anomeric glycosyl sulfoxides, via the formation of transient glycosulfenic acids and their addition to unsaturated acceptors. Thermolysis of alpha- and beta-3-[(2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-D-glucopyranosyl)sulfinyl]propanenitriles affords 1-glucosulfenic acids, which are reacted in situ with common substituted alkynes. The obtained (R(S),E)-2-[(2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl)sulfinyl]-2-butendioates are involved as enantiopure sulfinyl dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions with 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene to evaluate the role that the sugar moiety plays in the steric control of the cycloaddition. This chemistry provides a direct synthetic strategy for the stereocontrolled connection between thioglycon and aglycon moieties, thus offering the basis for an easy elaboration of new molecules incorporating thiosugar residues.