Expeditious Synthesis of C-Glycosyl Barbiturate Ligands of Bacterial Lectins: From Monomer Design to Glycoclusters and Glycopolymers.

The approach developed here offers a straightforward and efficient access to β- C-glycosyl barbiturate ligands, spanning from glycomimetics to multivalent C-neoglycoconjugates, with the aim of deciphering structural parameters impacting the binding to pathogenic lectins. We reinvestigated the Knoevenagel condensation of barbituratic acid on protecting-group free carbohydrates and successfully designed sodium and 5,5-disubstituted N, N-dimethyl barbiturate forms of D-galactose, L-fucose, melibiose, 2'-fucosyllactose, and maltose and evaluated their binding affinity by isothermal titration calorimetry with LecA (galactose-binding lectin) and LecB (fucose-binding lectin) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and RSL (fucose-binding lectin) from Ralstonia solanacearum. The barbiturate ring was shown to be detrimental for binding to LecA ( KD in mM range) and even more to LecB (noninteraction) while RSL is much more tolerant especially in the presence of an aromatic group ( KD in μM range). However, distancing the barbiturate ring from the recognition carbohydrate residue by using oligosaccharides increased affinity up to low micromolar range. Extension of our convenient synthetic approach led in two steps to melibiose-based C-glycosyl barbiturate cluster and C-glycosyl barbiturate glycopolymers exhibiting a dramatic enhancement of binding avidity for LecA.