A novel series of thirty-one N-substituted urea, thiourea, and selenourea derivatives containing diphenyldiselenide entities were synthesized, fully characterized by spectroscopic and analytical methods, and screened for their in vitro leishmanicidal activities. The cytotoxic activity of these derivatives was tested against Leishmania infantum axenic amastigotes, and selectivity was assessed in human THP-1 cells.

A second generation of chiral bicyclic dehydroalanines easily accessible from serine has been developed. These scaffolds behaved as excellent S-Michael acceptors when tri-O-acetyl-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-1-thio-α-d-galactopyranose (abbreviated as GalNAc-α-SH) was used as a nucleophile. This addition proceeds with total chemo- and stereoselectivity, complete atom economy, quickly, and at room temperature, making it a true click reaction. The Michael adducts were easily transformed into S-(2-acetamido-2-deoxy-α-d-galactopyranosyl)-l- and -d-cysteines, which can be regarded as mimics of the Tn antigen derived from l-Ser (α-d-GalNAc-l-Ser) and d-Ser (α-d-GalNAc-d-Ser), respectively.