Fascinating Oligosaccharide Research

抄録

I had decided on my life plan of research when I left for my new position (Juntendo University). I gradually became interested in functional sugar chains in the body because the functions of saccharides (particularly, sugar chains and oligosaccharides) had not been elucidated, being considered as just decorations. However, anti-inflammatory effects of glucosamine and chitosan had been described several decades earlier. I found a report on the anti-cancer effect of glucosamine on cancer tissue transplanted in mice in ‘Nature’, and this report gave me an opportunity to consider sugar function research. I repeatedly considered a new idea concerning glucosamine and animal lectin without telling anyone. If lectin existing in many animals and plants proved to be useful for this purpose, glucosamine would exhibit an anti-cancer effect, and the next target which came to my mind was the synthesis of a new sugar chain (galactoseβ1-4/6glucosamine, Galβ1-4/6GlcNH₂).