Polysaccharides articles within Nature Chemistry

Featured

• Article | 27 April 2023

  Precision native polysaccharides from living polymerization of anhydrosugars

  The inability to access well-defined polysaccharides in sufficient quantities has hampered our understanding of their structure–function relationships. Now it has been shown that native precision polysaccharides can be readily prepared via living polymerization of 1,6-anhydrosugars. The obtained polymers display excellent chemical recyclability, suggesting their potential utility as a class of sustainable materials.

  • Lianqian Wu
  • , Zefeng Zhou
  •  & Jia Niu

• Article | 18 April 2016

  Chemical polyglycosylation and nanolitre detection enables single-molecule recapitulation of bacterial sugar export

  Capsular polysaccharides are a protective layer enveloping pathogenic bacteria. Understanding their export could guide the design of therapeutics that render bacteria vulnerable to attack by the immune system or other therapeutic agents. Now, a synthetic strategy of polyglycosylation has been developed to obtain defined capsular polysaccharide fragments. Subsequent nanolitre detection enables their export to be studied at the single-molecule level.

  • Lingbing Kong
  • , Andrew Almond
  •  & Benjamin G. Davis

• Article | 01 February 2016

  An antibacterial vaccination strategy based on a glycoconjugate containing the core lipopolysaccharide tetrasaccharide Hep₂Kdo₂

  The presence and linkage of unusual higher sugars in the ‘inner core’ of Gram-negative bacteria makes the core lipopolysacchride tetrasaccharide Hep₂Kdo₂ a tough target. Now, a 2+2 glycosylation strategy has facilitated the synthesis of this glycoconjugate. Synthesis of Hep₂Kdo₂ enabled an antibacterial vaccination strategy based on immunization with the glycoconjugate and the subsequent administration of an inhibitor that uncovers the corresponding epitope in pathogenic bacteria.

  • Lingbing Kong
  • , Balakumar Vijayakrishnan
  •  & Benjamin G. Davis

• Article | 19 June 2011

  Synthesis of 3-O-sulfonated heparan sulfate octasaccharides that inhibit the herpes simplex virus type 1 host–cell interaction

  Oligosaccharides displayed at cell surfaces have important biological functions — such as controlling the entry of viruses — but a full understanding of this behaviour requires the synthesis of such compounds, which remains challenging. Here, two synthetic octasaccharides were shown to have remarkably similar inhibition of herpes simplex virus type 1 infection of cell cultures to the natural oligosaccharide identified in enzymatic studies.

  • Yu-Peng Hu
  • , Shu-Yi Lin
  •  & Shang-Cheng Hung