Recently, great interest has been focussed on the synthesis of oligosaccharides containing N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) because of its important roles in a variety of biological recognitions.² However, many difficulties in the synthesis of naturally occurring α-glycosides still remained.³ We have recently reported the stereo-selective synthesis of a series of α- and β-2-thio-neuraminyl glycosides.^1-4 In the meantime, the utility of thioglycosides in oligosaccharide synthesis has been widely developed.⁵ Particularly noteworthy is the dimethyl(methylthio)sulfonium triflate (DMTST) promoted glyco-sylation method^5k.1 because excellent yields are achieved due to the high thiophilicity of this reagent.

The compound Neu5Ac3αF-DSPE (4), in which the C-3 position was modified with an axial fluorine atom, inhibited the catalytic hydrolysis of influenza virus sialidase and the binding activity of hemagglutinin. The inhibitory activities to sialidases were independent of virus isolates examined. With the positive results obtained for inhibition of hemagglutination and hemolysis induced by A/Aichi/2/68 virus, the inhibitory effect of Neu5Ac3αF-DSPE (4) against MDCK cells was examined, and it was found that 4 inhibits the viral infection with IC₅₀ value of 5.6 µM based on the cytopathic effects. The experimental results indicate that compound 4 not only inhibits the attachment of virus to the cell surface receptor but also disturbs the release of the progeny viruses from infected cells by inhibiting both hemagglutinin and sialidase of the influenza viruses. The study suggested that the compound is a new class of bifunctional drug candidates for the future chemotherapy of influenza.