Degradation of target oligosaccharides by anthraquinone-lectin hybrids with light switching.

Anthraquinone-lectin hybrids were effectively synthesized using water-soluble anthraquinone derivative 11 with concanavalin A (ConA) and hygrophorus russula lectin (HRL) to give anthraquinone-ConA (16) and anthraquinone-HRL (17) hybrids, respectively. These anthraquinone-lectin hybrids effectively and selectively degraded oligosaccharides containing a mannose residue as a non-reducing terminal sugar, which has affinity for ConA and HRL, under photo-irradiation with long-wavelength UV light without additives and under neutral conditions. In addition, anthraquinone-HRL (17) selectively photo-degraded only Man(α1,6)Man, which has a high affinity for HRL, among several mannosides by recognition of both the type and glycosidic linkage profile of the sugar in an oligosaccharide.