Development and Applications of Sugar-based Supramolecular Architectures

Abstract

Sugars, representing a biomolecule with nucleic acids and proteins, are relevant in a great number of biological processes. Since the interactions involving carbohydrates, e.g., carbohydrate-receptor interactions, are considerably weaker compared to interactions between other biomolecules (K_D=µM–mM), multivalent carbohydrate–protein interaction creates a high-avidity interaction with clustered binding sites. This carbohydrate cluster effect has been mimicked in research to develop supramolecular material via the combination of self-assembling lipids or peptides with sugars or development of sugar-based supramolecules. This paper mainly introduces an amino sugar-based supramolecular hydrogel with reduction responsiveness and summarizes recent research in the supramolecular glycomaterials.