Selective derivatization of nucleotide diphosphate (NDP)-4-keto sugars for electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS)

Nucleotide diphosphate (NDP) sugars are widely present in antibiotics and glycoconjugates, such as protein- and lipid-linked oligosaccharides, where they act as substrates for glycosyltransferase in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Among NDP sugars, NDP-4-keto sugars are key intermediates in the synthesis of structurally diverse NDP sugars with different functional groups. However, the structural identification of the NDP-4-keto sugars via mass spectrometry (electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS)) continues to be a challenge because of the carbonyl group in these sugars interferes with ionization process. In this study, we evaluated various hydroxylamine compounds for the derivatization of NDP-4-keto sugars, so that the detection of the sugars by ESI-MS is more efficient. As a result, O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine was found to be the most effective tagging molecule for the detection of NDP-4-keto sugars without being interfered by original MS. This method can be used for identifying NDP-4-keto sugars such as thymidine diphosphate (TDP)-, adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-, uridine diphosphate (UDP)-, and cytosine diphosphate (CDP)-4-keto sugars as well as new NDP-4-keto-dehydratases.