Exploration of the Oxazolidinthione Protecting System for the Synthesis of Sialic Acid Glycosides.

An N-acetyl oxazolidinthione protected sialyl thioglycoside was synthesized and its use as a sialyl donor studied. The strongly electron-withdrawing nature of the oxazolidinthione moiety is such that activation could not be achieved at -78 °C. Couplings were therefore conducted at the lowest convenient temperature (-50 °C). Glycosides were formed in good yield but in two out three cases studied selectivities were lower than those seen with the corresponding N-acetyl oxazoldinone protected donor. The resulting N-acetyl oxazolidinthione protectd disaccharides were converted to the corresponding N-acetyl oxazolidinones by treatment with N-iodosuccinimide and triflic acid in the presence of water at 0 °C.