Solution and solid-support synthesis of a potential leishmaniasis carbohydrate vaccine

The synthesis of a potential carbohydrate vaccine for the parasitic disease leishmaniasis is described. New solution- and solid-phase synthetic strategies were explored for the assembly of a unique tetrasaccharide antigen found on the Leishmania lipophosphoglycan. An initial solution-phase synthesis relied on thioglycosides as building blocks and the establishment of the central disaccharide from lactal via an oxidation-reduction sequence. A second approach was completed both in solution and on solid support. The solid-phase synthesis relied on assembly from monosaccharide units and was used to evaluate different glycosylating agents in the efficient installation of the galactose beta-(1 -->4) mannoside. Glycosyl phosphates proved most successful in this endeavor. This first solid-phase synthesis of the Leishmania cap provided rapid access to the tetrasaccharide in 18% overall yield while requiring only a single purification step. The synthetic cap tetrasaccharide was conjugated to the immunostimulator Pam(3)Cys to create fully synthetic carbohydrate vaccine 1 and to the carrier protein KLH to form semisynthetic vaccine 2. Currently, both constructs have entered initial immunological experiments in mice targeted at the development of a vaccine against the parasitic disease leishmaniasis.