Electrochemical synthesis of the protected cyclic (1,3;1,6)-β-glucan dodecasaccharide.

Automated electrochemical assembly is an electrochemical method to synthesise middle-sized molecules, including linear oligosaccharides, and some linear oligosaccharides can be electrochemically converted into the corresponding cyclic oligosaccharides effectively. In this study, the target cyclic oligosaccharide is a protected cyclic (1,3;1,6)-β-glucan dodecasaccharide, which consists of two types of glucose trisaccharides with β-(1,3)- and β-(1,6)-glycosidic linkages. The formation of the protected cyclic dodecasaccharide was confirmed by the electrochemical one-pot dimerisation-cyclisation of the semi-circular hexasaccharide. The yield of the protected cyclic dodecasaccharide was improved by using a stepwise synthesis via the linear dodecasaccharide.