Synthesis and use of 6,6,6-trifluoro-L-fucose to block core-fucosylation in hybridoma cell lines.

Many monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) used in cancer immunotherapy mediate tumour cell lysis by recruiting natural killer (NK) cells; a phenomenon known as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Eliminating core-fucose from the N-glycans of a mAb enhances its capacity to induce ADCC. As such, inhibitors of fucosylation are highly desirable for the production of mAbs for research and therapeutic use. Herein, we describe a simple synthesis of 6,6,6-trifluoro-l-fucose (F3Fuc), a metabolic inhibitor of fucosylation, and demonstrate the utility of this molecule in the production of low-fucose mAbs from murine hybridoma cell lines.