Gangliosides synthesis

Abstract

Various methodologies for the chemical synthesis of gangliosides have been explored so far and a lot of natural gangliosides including their structural analogues have been synthesized during the past three decades. Key technologies in the synthesis of gangliosides involve α-stereo selective sialylation and the introduction of the ceramide moiety into the oligosaccharide part. This chapter introduces two major strategies for ganglioside synthesis including the most commonly used one and the recently developed glucosylceramide cassette approach as well as natural gangliosides for which the total synthesis has been successfully achieved.