A Staphylococcus aureus lipoteichoic acid (LTA) derived structural variant with two diacylglycerol residues.

Based on 1,2-O-isopropylidene-sn-glycerol five chiral building blocks containing differently modified glycerol residues were required for the synthesis of the target molecule 2. One of these building blocks is diacylglyceryl beta-gentiobioside carrying a phosphite residue at 6b-O position. Ligation of these five building blocks led to the desired glycerol phosphate backbone to which d-alanyl residues were attached, thus generating after O-deprotection the target molecule 2, a bisamphiphilic structural variant of Staphylococcus aureus LTA. This compound displayed higher potency in terms of cytokine release by human blood leukocytes than the monoamphiphilic variant LTA.