Glycosidase inhibitors as antiviral and/or antitumor agents.

Glycoprotein processing inhibitors prevent the normal processing of N-linked glycoproteins by inhibiting specific glycosidases involved in these reactions. Thus, a number of compounds are now known that inhibit alpha-glucosidase I and alpha-glucosidase II and therefore prevent the removal of glucoses from the high-mannose chains. Some of these compounds are more potent inhibitors of one or the other of these glucosidases. There are also a number of inhibitors that affect one of the processing alpha-mannosidases (i.e. mannosidase I or mannosidase II). These compounds; especially the glucosidase inhibitors, have been valuable tools to help us understand the role of carbohydrate in viral envelope glycoprotein function. Such processing inhibitors have also been used with various tumorigenic cell lines to determine the function of N-linked glycoproteins in cancer.