Carbohydrates are essential mediators of many important extracellular binding events. Multivalent effects are often required for these binding interactions that are generally weak. Biologically significant carbohydrate-modified nanomaterials are an appealing model system for a systematic investigation of multivalent binding effects. This review seeks to highlight recent striking examples of multivalent glycosylated nanomaterials concentrating on carbohydrate-protein interactions. The specific aim is to provide an overview of various aspects of glyco-nanoparticles in binding assays, targeted therapy, molecular imaging, enzyme activity assay, and bacterium detection.

Herein, we report the first characterization of a novel galactokinase from Meiothermus taiwanensis sp. nov. WR-220 (MtGalK), which is overexpressed in E. coli and exhibits a k cat /K m value of 168.47 mM À1 s À1 toward Gal at 75 8C. The thermophilic MtGalK shows specific substrate recognition toward the Gal configuration with limited tolerance for modifications at the C-2 position to form products such as GalN-1-P, GalN 3 -1-P, and GalNAc-1-P. Due to its unique thermostability toward elevated reaction temperatures, MtGalK served as an ideal biocatalyst in the synthesis of useful sugar-1-phosphates and was further combined with glucose-1-phosphate thymidylyltransferase (RmlA) and a-1,4-galactosyltransferase (LgtC) to achieve the efficient preparative-scale synthesis of globotriose analogs (Gb3) using a one-pot three-enzyme system. In combination with a chemical synthetic strategy, a carbohydrate antigen from breast cancer stem cells, stage specific embryonic antigen-3 (SSEA-3) pentasaccharide, was synthesized from Gb3 in ten steps with a 23% overall yield. This flexible chemoenzymatic strategy for the synthesis of SSEA-3 also allowed us to further expand the inventory of valuable natural and non-natural glycans.

The design of high-affinity lectin ligands is critical for enhancing the inherently weak binding affinities of monomeric carbohydrates to their binding proteins. Glyco-gold nanoparticles (glyco-AuNPs) are promising multivalent glycan displays that can confer significantly improved functional affinity of glyco-AuNPs to proteins. Here, AuNPs are functionalized with several different carbohydrates to profile lectin affinities. We demonstrate that AuNPs functionalized with mixed thiolated ligands comprising glycan (70 mol %) and an amphiphilic linker (30 mol %) provide long-term stability in solutions containing high concentrations of salts and proteins, with no evidence of nonspecific protein adsorption. These highly stable glyco-AuNPs enable the detection of model plant lectins such as Concanavalin A, wheat germ agglutinin, and Ricinus communis Agglutinin 120, at subnanomolar and low picomolar levels through UV/Vis spectrophotometry and dynamic light scattering, respectively. Moreover, we develop in situ glyco-AuNPs-based agglutination on an oriented immobilized antibody microarray, which permits highly sensitive lectin sensing with the naked eye. In addition, this microarray is capable of detecting lectins presented individually, in other environmental settings, or in a mixture of samples. These results indicate that glyconanoparticles represent a versatile and highly sensitive method for detecting and probing the binding of glycan to proteins, with significant implications for the construction of a variety of platforms for the development of glyconanoparticle-based biosensors.

A method for the stereocontrolled synthesis of a bacterial phosphoglycolipid (PGL1) isolated from thermophilic bacteria is described. The key features of the synthesis include a highly α-selective glycosylation reaction between a trichloroacetimidate donor and a D-lyxose-derived primary alcohol acceptor and the late-stage incorporation of the phospholipid.

The trifluoroacetic acid adduct of tetranuclear zinc cluster Zn 4 (OCOCF 3 ) 6 O catalysis in per-O-acetylation and de-O-acetylation of carbohydrates at 70 C can be tuned by adjusting the reaction medium. Per-Oacetylation of hexopyranoses with a near stoichiometric amount of acetic anhydride in toluene resulted in the exclusive formation of pyranosyl products as an anomeric mixture, whereas de-O-acetylation of acetates occurred in methanol in high yields. In the latter, methanol acts as both nucleophile and solvent, and the reaction conditions were compatible to acid-and base-sensitive groups and amino acid derivatives.a Yield of crude product with purity higher than 97% according to 1 H NMR spectroscopy. b Yields aer 30 h under the loading of 5 mol% 1. Partial O-acetylated derivative (32%) was also formed.This journal is