Synthesis and screening of a library of Lewisx deoxyfluoro-analogues reveals differential recognition by glycan-binding partners

Glycan-mediated interactions play a crucial role in biology and medicine, influencing signalling, immune responses, and disease pathogenesis. However, the use of glycans in biosensing and diagnostics is limited by cross-reactivity, as certain glycan motifs can be recognised by multiple biologically distinct protein receptors. To address this specificity challenge, we report the enzymatic synthesis of a 150-member library of site-specifically fluorinated Lewisx analogues (‘glycofluoroforms’) using naturally occurring enzymes and fluorinated monosaccharides. Subsequent incorporation of a subset of these glycans into nanoparticles or a microarray revealed a striking spectrum of distinct binding intensities across different proteins that recognise Lewisx. Notably, we show that for two proteins with unique binding sites for Lewisx, glycofluoroforms exhibited enhanced binding to one protein, whilst reduced binding to the other, with selectivity governed by fluorination patterns. We finally showcase the potential diagnostic utility of this approach in glycofluoroform-mediated bacterial toxin detection by lateral flow

Organic-fluorous phase switches: A fluorous amine scavenger for purification in solution phase parallel synthesis

The synthesis of the fluorous amine scavenger [(C6F13CH2CH2)3SiCH2CH2CH2]2NH and its successful application in the automated solution phase parallel synthesis of a urea library are described. Ureas were made by robotic synthesis from organic amines and excess isocyanates. The amine scavenger reacts with excess isocyanate, and the fluorous tag serves to solubilize the resulting adduct in the fluorous phase so it can be removed by fluorous-organic extraction. Organic urea products are isolated in high yields and purities after liquid-liquid extraction. Preliminary biological evaluation shows that several of the ureas have ion channel modulation abilities. In contrast to polymer and ionic quenching methods, the fluorous quench works whether the product is soluble or insoluble in the reaction medium, and ionizable functional groups are tolerated in the products

Fluorous triphasic reactions: Transportative deprotection of fluorous silyl ethers with concomitant purification [11]

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A novel stereoselective one-pot conversion of alcohols into alkyl halides mediated by N,N '-diisopropylcarbodiimide

Alcohols can be converted in high yields to the corresponding alkyl halides in a one-pot procedure via the corresponding O-alkylisourea; very short reaction times are possible when microwave irradiation is used

Isoureas: versatile synthetic intermediates

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