Multicomponent synthesis of Ugi-type ceramide analogues and neoglycolipids from lipidic isocyanides

Unique types of ceramide and glycolipid architectures were obtained by means of Ugi reactions incorporating lipidic isocyanides as surrogates of sphingolipids. The multicomponent nature of this approach allowed for a highly efficient assembly process, wherein two of the components provided the lipidic tails while a third one incorporated either the functionality suitable for the conjugation to sugar or the sugar moiety itself. Two dissimilar strategies were implemented: (i) the initial assembly of ceramide analogues followed by glycosylation to produce a glycolipid skeleton and (ii) the one-pot construction of glycolipid frameworks by condensation of lipidic isocyanides either with lipidic amines and oligosaccharidic acids or with fatty acids and oligosaccharidic amines. Whereas both approaches are amenable for accessing analogues of anticancer glycolipids, the latter one proved to have greater potential owing to its more straightforward and efficient character. Overall, the methodology developed shows great promise toward the massive (eventually combinatorial) production of neoglycolipids suitable for biological screening.