Hydroxynorleucine as a glycosyl acceptor is an efficient means for introducing amino acid functionality into complex carbohydrates

A new approach to the synthesis of biologically relevant glycosyl amino acids using a non-natural amino acid as the glycosyl acceptor is described. The procedure involves a glycosylation reaction of a suitable carbohydrate donor with Fmoc-l-hydroxynorleucine benzyl ester. This reaction results in the direct incorporation of the amino acid moiety. The acceptor can be used for the preparation of α- or β-O-linked glycosides depending upon the nature of the glycosyl donor. This method has been applied in the synthesis of six different tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens.