An efficient synthesis of 1,6-anhydro-N-acetylmuramic acid from N-acetylglucosamine

• Matthew B. Calvert,
• Christoph Mayer and
• Alexander Titz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 2631–2636, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.261

• in only five steps from the cheap starting material N-acetylglucosamine. This efficient synthesis should enable future studies into the importance of 1,6-anhydromuramic acid in bacterial cell wall recycling processes. Keywords: N-acetylmuramic acid; anhydrosugars; antibiotic resistance; bacterial

• cell wall recycling; carbohydrate synthesis; Introduction 1,6-Anhydro-N-acetylmuramic acid (AnhydroMurNAc, 1, Figure 1) and its derivatives (e.g., 2 and 3) are of great interest due to their integral role in bacterial cell wall recycling [1][2] and the induction of antibacterial resistance [3