Oligosaccharides and Glyco-Conjugates
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2014) | Viewed by 97053
Special Issue Editors
Interests: syndetic organic chemistry; medicinal chemistry; chemical biology; protein engineering; biocatalysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Carbohydrates occur naturally as oligo- and polysaccharides and are often coupled to peptides. proteins and lipids. In particular, oligosaccharides and glyco-conjugates have key roles in a broad range of biological processes. In many cases, changes in the sugar structures can affect the biological properties of the parent compounds. Furthermore, functional properties of drugs such as solubility, pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics can be enhanced by the incorporation of carbohydrate moieties into the molecules.
Methods for synthesizing these molecules have, therefore, acquired immense importance, because it is not easy to isolate sufficient amounts of acceptable pure product from natural sources.
On the other hand, the structure of therapeutic bio-products is critically important for their efficacy and safety, and the ability to characterize it at various levels (from sequence to conformation) is critical not only at the quality control stage, but also throughout the discovery and design stages because these structural information enable to optimize and enhance their therapeutic profile in a rational fashion.
Many analytical technologies have been deeply improved in the last years for determining the exact structure of complex oligosaccharides and glyco-conjugates For example Liquid Chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) offers a variety of approaches to study structure and behaviour of complex protein drugs and has already become a default tool for characterizing the covalent structure, including sequence and post-translational modifications such as glycosylation which is the most common PTM in currently developed biopharmaceuticals.
Research papers dealing with the study and development of new compounds as well as new synthetic approaches, including new enzymatic or chemoenzymatic methods, new methods for analytical and biological characterization of oligosaccharides and glyco-conjugates, are welcomed for inclusion into this Special Issue of Molecules. Review articles, particularly those dealing with retrospective analyses of prior successes in the discovery and/or development of new drugs based on oligosaccharides and glyco-conjugates, are also welcomed for inclusion.
Prof. Dr. Marco Terreni
Dr. Caterina Temporini
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- oligosaccharides
- glycopeptides
- glycoproteins
- glycolipids
- synthesis
- analysis
- structure characterization
- biological activity
- structure based drug design
- drug discovery and development
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