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。