Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.4
Schematic representation of glycoli-
posomes wherein the carbohydrate parts are
randomly distributed over the lipid bilayer
surface.
4.5
Glycopolymers
Another class of synthetic multivalent carbohydrates is represented by glycopoly-
mers that can be defi ned as artifi cial macromolecules featuring pendant carbohy-
drate moieties. It consists of a relatively novel and rapidly expanding family of
neoglycoconjugates, receiving increasing interest due to their numerous applica-
tions [6-10]. By virtue of their many carbohydrate moieties, they constitute potent
carbohydrate scaffolds insuring multivalency, added to several practical and fi nan-
cial advantages over other forms of neoglycoconjugates. Indeed, they can be con-
structed with an almost infi nite number of molecular weights, and progress in the
fi eld has allowed control over the glycosylation and functional density, and position
on the polymeric backbones. Moreover, the use of comonomers (such as acryl-
amide, methacrylamide, and so on) has led to copolymer production in an inex-
pensive way. In addition, they possess homogeneous glycan structures and
generally constitute better tools for carbohydrate- protein interaction studies.
Finally, many polymer carriers have also been shown to be nontoxic, poorly or
non-immunogenic and have increased stability towards external stimuli such as
pH variations.
A number of elegant methods exist for their preparation that may vary signifi -
cantly depending on the targeted applications. As mentioned before, recent pro-
gresses allowed better control over size, shape, valency and functional group
incorporation. Thus, simple to very complex polymeric oligosaccharide sequences
can be synthesized. By analogy with other neoglycoconjugate constructions, che-
