Systematic syntheses and inhibitory activities of bisubstrate-type inhibitors of sialyltransferases.

Bisubstrate-type sialyltransferase inhibitors 1/2a-e, having CMP-NeuAc and N-acetyllactosamine (or lactose) moieties connected by an alkanedithiol linker, were synthesized systematically. A uniform synthetic strategy was adopted that consists of consecutive couplings of three components (N-acetyllactosamine or lactose, sialic acid, and CMP), followed by oxidation. Due to the sensitivity of the compounds under alkaline conditions, final deprotection required careful monitoring by (1)H NMR. The inhibitory activities of 1/2a-e toward ST6N and ST3N indicated that both the structure of the acceptor moiety and the distance between donor and acceptor moieties were important.