Esterification of 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-glycosylated serine and cysteine derivatives with an hydroxymethyl resin.

Esterification of glycosylated serine and cysteine derivatives with a 4-alkoxybenzyl alcohol (Wang) resin is described. The classical methods of ester bond formation (symmetrical anhydride, 2-(1H-benzotriazol-1-yl)-1,1,3,3-tetramethyluronium tetrafluoroborate [TBTU]/4-dimethylaminopyridine [DMAP] with or without 1-hydroxybenzotriazole [HOBT], pentafluorophenyl [Pfp] esters gave high percentages of racemization of the glycosylated serine or cysteine residues. To reduce the D-amino acid content, we found that the best results were obtained with the highly efficient MSNT reagent (2,4,6-mesitylenesulfonyl-3-nitro-1,2,4-triazolide), which gave a high yield of substitution of the resin and the lowest percentage of racemization. A difference in behavior was observed between the two amino acids. The glycosylated cysteine derivative always gave lower racemization than the analogous glycosylated serine.