May 18, 2020
Keio University
Associate Professor Daisuke Takahashi and Professor Kazunobu Toshima of the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, have successfully developed a new catalytic glycosylation reaction that distinguishes between the two equivalent hydroxyl groups of a meso-diol and diastereoselectively attaches a sugar to one of them.
Structures in which a sugar is bonded to the hydroxyl group of a meso-diol are found in various antibiotics, such as kanamycins, and in biomolecules that govern life phenomena. For this reason, the development of an efficient synthesis method has long been desired. However, conventional chemical methods cannot strictly distinguish between the two equivalent hydroxyl groups, requiring many steps for synthesis. In contrast, this new method, much like an enzymatic reaction, can attach a sugar to the desired hydroxyl group with high selectivity in a single step. Therefore, this technology is expected to contribute broadly to the fields of drug discovery, medical sciences, and biology, including the development of new antibiotics.
The results of this research were published online in the British general science journal Nature Communications on May 15, 2020.
Please see below for the full press release.