Synthesis of Group B Streptococcus tipe II (GBSII) Oligosaccharide of Vaccine Development

Carbohydrates are among the most abundant molecules found on the cell surfaces of bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Apart from the conventional roles of carbohydrates as energy sources and structural polymers, carbohydrates are also associated with cancer metastasis, protein stabilization, pathogen infection and the immune response. Cells of our body have sensors made out of carbohydrates on outer surface of plasma membrane and acts as sensors and can detect many kinds of stimuli, and can signal the immune system to respond. Carbohydrate-protein molecular recognition processes have pivotal roles in infections and in immune response to pathogens. To date, several vaccines based on isolated capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) are marketed against infectious diseases. However, the use of isolated capsular polysaccharide poses several limitations, as natural sources are generally limited and the isolation is very challenging. Additionally, the isolated polysaccharides are heterogeneous and often contains impurities. Furthermore, limited protection of certain CPS antigens impairs the efficiency of vaccines. To overcome limitations associated with isolated polysaccharides, synthetic oligosaccharides present an effective alternative with great potential to understand glycan immunology and rationally design effective antigens. Consequently, characterization and reconstruction of carbohydrate epitopes with authentic composition has become one of the major target in glycoscience. To this end, strategies are needed to facilitate the streamlined design and generation of these antigens. This thesis concerns the development of an effective synthetic strategy to obtain Group B Streptococcus (GBS) type II oligosaccharide for vaccine development. GBS, a Gram-positive bacterium, inhabits the intestinal and genitourinary tract of 10‐30% of humans. GBS is one of the primary causes of bacterial infections among neonates and pregnant women, resulting in many severe diseases such as sepsis, meningitis, abortion, and so on. Type II GBS is one of the predominant GBS serotypes and is associated with about 15% of the invasive infections in adults and infants; therefore, represents an important human pathogen. The development of effective preventive vaccine against GBS is much needed to help pregnant women protect their newborns. This thesis describes the effective synthetic strategy to synthesize GBS type II oligosaccharide to be applied for vaccine development. Herein, we present a new and convenient synthesis of the repeating unit of GBS type II capsular polysaccharide. The structure of GBS type II was elucidated in 1983 and the repeating unit of GBS type II is a heptasaccharide composed of α-Neu5Ac (2-3)-ß-D-Gal-(1-4)- ß-D-GlcNAc-(1-3)-[-ß-D-Gal-(1-6)]-ß-D-Gal-(1-4)-ß-D-Gal-(1-3)-ß-D-Glc. The presented synthetic strategy is based on the five subcomponents derived from the retro synthetic analysis. Suitably protected lactosamine and lactose derivatives are pivotal building blocks in our synthesis and both disaccharide fragments have been achieved from the cheap and readily available lactose. Having started from two disaccharides saves the efforts of glycosylation and reduces the number of synthetic steps. The building blocks have been obtained in good overall yield following the optimized synthetic approach. The synthesis of backbone linear chain trisaccharide [ß-D-Gal-(1-4)-ß-D-Gal-(1-3)-ß-D-Glc] and pentasaccharide [ß-D-Gal-(1-4)-ß-D-GlcNAc-(1-3)-ß-D-Gal-(1-4)-ß-D-Gal-(1-3)-ß-D-Glc] has been achieved in excellent yield (~80% yield). The final steps of the synthesis comprise- the incorporation of ß-D-Gal unit into the linear chain pentasaccharide (currently ongoing) followed by the enzymatic introduction of sialic acid (NeuNAc unit) and subsequent deprotection to yield the repeating unit of GBS type II capsular polysaccharide. To conclude, in this thesis we present an efficient and easy handling synthetic approach to the heptasaccharide repeating unit of GBS type II. Readily available and cheap dairy side-product lactose has been used as a key structure in the presented scheme, allowing the efficient synthesis of the pentasaccharide backbone of the target compound. The synthetic GBS II fragments will be used for glycan array and structural studies and immunochemical characterization with specific monoclonal antibodies. This thesis comprises of four main chapters and the experimental section containing the methods and synthetic procedures for the discussed schemes. Chapter one is a general introduction and deals with the necessity and the social importance of the described project. Chapter two of the thesis outlines the scientific background and pathogenesis of GBS, carbohydrates and their biological importance, and general introduction of vaccines and how the carbohydrates can be used as a suitable vaccine candidate. Chapter two establishes the importance of synthetic carbohydrates and how the synthetic carbohydrates can be used to develop suitable effective vaccines against GBS diseases. Chapter three of the thesis contains the general introduction and structural features of GBS II CPS and the retrosynthetic analysis of GBS II CPS to identify the building blocks for the synthesis of GBS CPS II. Chapter four of the thesis summarizes the synthetic strategies and results to achieve the building blocks described in chapter three and the recombination of fragments to achieve the final molecule GBS II CPS repeating unit. The last part of the thesis will consists of the experimental methods and synthetic procedures to achieve the proposed molecule along with the characterization data.