Iminosugar C-Glycosides Work as Pharmacological Chaperones of NAGLU, a Glycosidase Involved in MPS IIIB Rare Disease*.

Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB is a devastating neurological disease caused by a lack of the lysosomal enzyme, α-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU), leading to a toxic accumulation of heparan sulfate. Herein we explored a pharmacological chaperone approach to enhance the residual activity of NAGLU in patient fibroblasts. Capitalizing on the three-dimensional structures of two modest homoiminosugar-based NAGLU inhibitors in complex with bacterial homolog of NAGLU, CpGH89, we have synthesized a library of 17 iminosugar C-glycosides mimicking N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and bearing various pseudo-anomeric substituents of both α- and ß-configuration. Elaboration of the aglycon moiety results in low micromolar selective inhibitors of human recombinant NAGLU, but surprisingly it is the non-functionalized and wrongly configured ß-homoiminosugar that was proved to act as the most promising pharmacological chaperone, promoting a 2.4 fold activity enhancement of mutant NAGLU at its optimal concentration.

DDQ-Promoted Benzylic/Allylic sp(3) C-H Activation for the Stereoselective Intramolecular C-N Bond Formation: Applications to the Total Synthesis of (-)-Codonopsinine, (+)-5-epi-Codonopsinine, (+)-Radicamine B, and (-)-Codonopsinol.

This is the first report on an intramolecular C-N bond formation of an amide-tethered benzylic/allylic system using DDQ under neutral conditions which has been successfully applied to the total synthesis of naturally occurring pyrolidine alkaloids. The key steps for the synthesis of corresponding precursors involve Julia-Kociensky olefination/cross-metathesis and dihydroxylation reactions, and this methodology is also extended to the ω-unsaturated N-sulfanilamide to furnish piperidines.

Synthesis of pyrrolidine-based analogues of 2-acetamidosugars as N-acetyl-D-glucosaminidase inhibitors.

A ring-contraction strategy applied to ß-azido,γ-hydroxyazepanes yielded after functional group manipulation new tetrahydroxylated pyrrolidines displaying an acetamido moiety, one of these iminosugars demonstrating low micromolar inhibition on N-acetylglucosaminidases.

Synthesis of 1,2-cis-homoiminosugars derived from GlcNAc and GalNAc exploiting a ß-amino alcohol skeletal rearrangement.

The synthesis of 1,2-cis-homoiminosugars bearing an NHAc group at the C-2 position is described. The key step to prepare these α-D-GlcNAc and α-D-GalNAc mimics utilizes a ß-amino alcohol skeletal rearrangement applied to an azepane precursor. This strategy also allows access to naturally occurring α-HGJ and α-HNJ. The α-D-GlcNAc-configured iminosugar was coupled to a glucoside acceptor to yield a novel pseudodisaccharide. Preliminary glycosidase inhibition evaluation indicates that the α-D-GalNAc-configured homoiminosugar is a potent and selective α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase inhibitor.

Synthesis of 1,2-trans-2-acetamido-2-deoxyhomoiminosugars.

The first synthesis of 1,2-trans-homoiminosugars devised as mimics of ß-D-GlcNAc and α-D-ManNAc is described. Key steps include a regioselective azidolysis of a cyclic sulfite and a ß-amino alcohol skeletal rearrangement applied to a polyhydroxylated azepane. The ß-D-GlcNAc derivative has been coupled to serine to deliver an iminosugar C-amino acid. The two homoiminosugars demonstrate moderate glycosidase inhibition.