Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, 315 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA, USA.
Nat Chem. 2009 Nov;1(8):611-22. doi: 10.1038/nchem.399.
Synthetic oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates are increasingly used as probes for biological research and as lead compounds for drug and vaccine discovery. These endeavors are, however, complicated by a lack of general methods for the routine preparation of this important class of compounds. Recent development such as one-pot multi-step protecting group manipulations, the use of unified monosaccharide building blocks, the introduction of stereoselective glycosylation protocols, and convergent strategies for oligosaccharide assembly, are beginning to address these problems. Furthermore, oligosaccharide synthesis can be facilitated by chemo-enzymatic methods, which employ a range of glycosyl transferases to modify a synthetic oligosaccharide precursor. Glycosynthases, which are mutant glycosidases, that can readily form glycosidic linkages are addressing a lack of a wide range glycosyltransferases. The power of carbohydrate chemistry is highlighted by an ability to synthesize glycoproteins.
合成寡糖和糖缀合物越来越多地被用作生物研究的探针，并作为药物和疫苗发现的先导化合物。然而，由于缺乏常规制备这一重要类化合物的通用方法，这些努力变得复杂起来。最近的发展，如一锅多步保护基操作、使用统一的单糖构建块、立体选择性糖基化方案的引入以及寡糖组装的收敛策略，开始解决这些问题。此外，通过化学-酶方法可以促进寡糖合成，该方法利用一系列糖基转移酶来修饰合成的寡糖前体。糖合酶是可以轻易形成糖苷键的突变糖苷酶，可解决糖苷转移酶种类有限的问题。通过合成糖蛋白，展示了碳水化合物化学的强大功能。
