Wu Baoqi, Tang Rongzhi, Tan Yu
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China.
School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Nat Rev Chem. 2025 Jan;9(1):10-27. doi: 10.1038/s41570-024-00666-3. Epub 2024 Dec 9.
A captivating challenge in chemistry lies in achieving robust and precise binding of uncharged, hydrophilic carbohydrate entities. Although past decades have provided a variety of excellent molecular architectures tailored for carbohydrate recognition, including acyclic receptors, macrocycles and foldamers, recent advances have highlighted the potential of synthetic molecular cages. These structures are equipped with intricately designed cavities that contain bespoke noncovalent binding sites for carbohydrate interactions. Constructed with the principles of complementarity and preorganization, these cage receptors demonstrate high affinity and exquisite selectivity in carbohydrate recognition through noncovalent interactions, capitalizing on multivalency and cooperativity. This Review highlights recent advances in the design and application of molecular cages with diverse structures, interactions and binding capacities for carbohydrate recognition. In the concluding remarks, we discuss future avenues for further exploration.
化学领域一个引人入胜的挑战在于实现对不带电荷的亲水性碳水化合物实体的牢固且精确的结合。尽管在过去几十年里已经出现了多种为碳水化合物识别量身定制的出色分子结构，包括无环受体、大环化合物和折叠体，但最近的进展凸显了合成分子笼的潜力。这些结构配备了精心设计的空腔，其中包含用于碳水化合物相互作用的定制非共价结合位点。基于互补性和预组织原则构建的这些笼状受体，通过利用多价性和协同性，在碳水化合物识别中通过非共价相互作用展现出高亲和力和精准的选择性。本综述重点介绍了具有不同结构、相互作用和结合能力的分子笼在碳水化合物识别方面的设计与应用的最新进展。在结语部分，我们讨论了未来进一步探索的途径。
