A series of alkyl thioglycosides and alkyl thiodiglycosides bearing glucose and N-acetylglucosamine residues were prepared by thiol-ene coupling in moderate to good yields (40-85%). Their binding ability towards wheat germ agglutinin was measured by competitive enzyme-linked lectin assays. One of the synthetic compounds presenting two GlcNAc units showed the highest inhibitory effect of this study with an IC50 of 11 µM corresponding to a 3182-fold improvement compared to GlcNAc. These synthetic molecules were used to produce giant vesicles, alone or in mixture with phospholipids, mimicking bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMV) with potential antiadhesive properties.
Keywords: glycolipids; outer membrane vesicles; synthetic vaccines.