Targeting Carbohydrate–Protein Interactions
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 66220
Special Issue Editor
Interests: organic synthesis; carbohydrates; c-glycosyl derivatives; anomeric spirocycles; lectine antagonists; glycoenzyme inhibitors
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Carbohydrates, Nature’s ubiquitous molecules, participate in a plethora of biological phenomena. Besides being well-known constituents of skeletal and storage materials as well as nucleic acids throughout the living world, sugars, in the form of either mono-, oligo-, or polysaccharides, mediate and regulate intrinsic (intraspecies) and extrinsic (interspecies) recognition events, have structural and modulatory roles, and are the subject of molecular mimicry of host glycans (Varki, Glycobiology, 2017, 27, 3–49). Thus, glycosylation appears to be one of the most widespread biochemical modifications of biomolecules, is present in all living cells, and, among other things, is responsible for the enormous diversity of living beings, which can hardly be explained solely based on the genome.
Most of the above phenomena occur via interactions of the respective carbohydrate molecules with specific proteins called lectins. On the other hand, construction of the sugar derivatives and their biologically active conjugates is catalyzed by glycoenzymes, proteins that not only recognize sugars but also transform or attach (or even detach) them to (or from) other chemical entities. The investigation of the molecular basis of these biological events—despite the significant advances that have been made—is at its beginning and, given the huge number of carbohydrate–protein interactions to be studied, may provide further exciting results to be utilized in biomedical fields and possibly translated to therapies.
Indeed, such efforts have already led to marketed drugs, e.g., glycosidase as well as sodium dependent glucose transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors against diabetes, neuraminidase inhibitors to treat influenza, and modified oligosaccharides to be used as anticoagulants. Other molecules are in various phases of clinical investigation, such as a selectin inhibitor against sickle cell disease and galectin inhibitors against fibrogenetic disorders and cancer.
This Special Issue is devoted to studies on the characterization and modulation of carbohydrate–protein interactions focussed on lectins and glycoenzymes. Contributions on any aspect of these fields are welcome, e.g., structural studies, the design and synthesis of small-molecule and multivalent inhibitors, structure–activity relationships, computational approaches, and applications of recognized interactions.
Prof. Dr. László Somsák
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- lectin
- glycoenzyme
- sugar transporter
- substrate
- inhibitor
- multivalency
- synthesis
- medicinal chemistry
- structure–activity relationship
- structure-based inhibitor design
- computational chemistry
- NMR
- X-ray
- application
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