Research over the past two decades has uncovered numerous biological roles for carbohydrates, e.g. in cell adhesion processes, signal transduction, malignant transformation, or viral and bacterial cell-surface recognition. Carbohydrates and structural analogues thereof are therefore
considered as potential new leads. Although the chemical synthesis of carbohydrates is well established, the preparation of particular oligosaccharides still remains a costly and cumbersome challenge. A complementary approach to the chemical synthesis is the use of enzymatic methods. The transfer
of monosaccharide moieties to natural substrates, catalyzed by glycosyltransferases, exhibits excellent chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity. In addition, enzymatic glycosylations permit the synthesis of carbohydrate derivatives and even carbohydrate mimetics. Our results reveal a remarkable
synthetic potential of fucosyltransferases VI (EC 2.4.1.65) and III (EC 2.4.1.65), and ? (2?3)-sialyltransferase ST3Gal III (EC 2.4.99.6). Their use for the preparative synthesis of oligosaccharides and derivatives as well as mimetics thereof is demonstrated.
过去20年的研究揭示了
碳水化合物在许多
生物学过程中的作用,例如在细胞黏附过程、
信号转导、恶性转化或病毒和细菌细胞表面识别中的作用。因此,
碳水化合物及其结构类似物被认为是潜在的新线索。虽然
碳水化合物的
化学合成已经得到了很好的建立,但特定
寡糖的制备仍然是一项昂贵而繁琐的挑战。
化学合成的补充方法是使用酶法。由糖基转移酶催化的
单糖基团转移到天然底物上,具有出色的
化学、区域和立体选择性。此外,酶促糖基化允许合成
碳水化合物衍
生物甚至类似物。我们的研究结果显示,岩藻糖转移酶VI(
EC 2.4.1.65)和III(
EC 2.4.1.65),以及(2-3)-
唾液酸转移酶ST3Gal III(
EC 2.4.99.6)具有显著的合成潜力。我们演示了它们在制备
寡糖及其衍
生物和类似物方面的应用。