Dehydrative glycosidations of 2-deoxysugar derivatives catalyzed by an arylboronic ester.

An N-methylpyridinium-4-boronic ester acts as a catalyst for dehydrative glycosidations of 2-deoxy sugar-derived hemiacetals. The catalytic protocol is tolerant of functionalized acceptors, including alcohols bearing isopropylidene ketal, tert-butyl carbamate or benzyl carbamate groups. The results demonstrate that organoboron-catalyzed substitution reactions of alcohols, which have previously been conducted on π-activated (benzylic, allylic or propargylic) substrates, can also be used to achieve C-O bond formation from carbohydrate-derived hemiacetals.

Boronic Acids as Phase-Transfer Reagents for Fischer Glycosidations in Low-Polarity Solvents.

Protocols employing phenylboronic acid as a phase-transfer reagent for Fischer glycosidations in low-polarity organic solvents are described. In addition to providing rate acceleration, the formation of a substrate-derived boronic ester alters the course of the reaction by selective promotion of a furanoside- or pyranoside-selective pathway. Computational modeling of the relative energies of the glycoside-derived boronic esters provides results that are qualitatively consistent with the observed distributions of furanoside versus pyranoside products. The boronic esters that are obtained as direct products of these reactions serve as protected intermediates for the synthesis of functionalized glycosides. Complexation of particular diol groups by the boronic acid also enables selective transformations of mixtures of carbohydrates.

Missense mutation in APOC3 within the C-terminal lipid binding domain of human ApoC-III results in impaired assembly and secretion of triacylglycerol-rich very low density lipoproteins: evidence that ApoC-III plays a major role in the formation of lipid precursors within the microsomal lumen.

Hepatic assembly of triacylglycerol (TAG)-rich very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) is achieved through recruitment of bulk TAG (presumably in the form of lipid droplets within the microsomal lumen) into VLDL precursor containing apolipoprotein (apo) B-100. We determined protein/lipid components of lumenal lipid droplets (LLD) in cells expressing recombinant human apoC-III (C3wt) or a mutant form (K58E, C3KE) initially identified in humans that displayed hypotriglyceridemia. Although expression of C3wt markedly stimulated secretion of TAG and apoB-100 as VLDL(1), the K58E mutation (located at the C-terminal lipid binding domain) abolished the effect in transfected McA-RH7777 cells and in apoc3-null mice. Metabolic labeling studies revealed that accumulation of TAG in LLD was decreased (by 50%) in cells expressing C3KE. A Fat Western lipid protein overlay assay showed drastically reduced lipid binding of the mutant protein. Substituting Lys(58) with Arg demonstrated that the positive charge at position 58 is crucial for apoC-III binding to lipid and for promoting TAG secretion. On the other hand, substituting both Lys(58) and Lys(60) with Glu resulted in almost entire elimination of lipid binding and loss of function in promoting TAG secretion. Thus, the lipid binding domain of apoC-III plays a key role in the formation of LLD for hepatic VLDL assembly and secretion.