Synthetic glycosylation of peptides using unprotected saccharide beta-glycosylamines.

Glycopeptides can be valuable tools in determining the influence of carbohydrate moieties on the intrinsic properties of glycoproteins. However, glycopeptides of sufficient quantity and purity are as yet not readily available from biological sources. The chemical coupling of a beta-glycosylamino group of an unprotected carbohydrate with an activated aspartic acid residue of an unprotected peptide is a simple method for synthesizing asparagine-linked glycopeptides. In this report we demonstrate that the use of this method is not restricted to beta-glycosylamines of simple monosaccharides or short aspartic acid-containing pentapeptides. This is illustrated by the syntheses of several glycopentapeptides containing N,N'-diacetylchitobiose, a glutamine-linked glycopentapeptide containing a biantennary complex oligosaccharide, and glycosylated variants of two analogs of a polypeptide hormone, atriopeptin, containing N,N'-diacetylchitobiose.