Isoquinoline-1-Carboxylate as a Traceless Leaving Group for Chelation-Assisted Glycosylation under Mild and Neutral Reaction Conditions.

Glycosyl isoquinoline-1-carboxylate was developed as a novel benchtop stable and readily available glycosyl donor. The glycosylation reaction was promoted by the inexpensive Cu(OTf) salt under mild reaction conditions. The copper isoquinoline-1-carboxylate salt was precipitated from the solution and thus rendered a traceless leaving group. Surprisingly, the proton from the acceptor was absorbed by the precipitated metal complex and the reaction mixture remained at neutral pH. The copper-promoted glycosylation was also proven to be completely orthogonal to the gold-promoted glycosylation, and an iterative synthesis of oligosaccharides from benchtop stable anomeric ester building blocks becomes possible under mild reaction conditions.