我が国の研究が拓く糖鎖化学の未来

抄録

Glycan chains of various glycoconjugates are known to play pivotal roles in biological systems. Given their structural complexity diversity, chemical synthesis is expected to be powerful in understanding functions of glycan chains at molecular level. However, synthesis of glycan chains is more problematic than other biomolecules such as oligopeptides and oligonucleotides, because high efficiency, especially in terms of precise stereocontrol is difficult to achieve. In addition, glycan containing molecules having biological relevance often have highly complex structures. To remove these problems, various studies have been conducted, among which highly significant contributions have been made by researchers in Japan. Based on these, this brief article summarizes recent advances in the synthesis of complex glycans, glycolipids and glycoproteins, along with development of methodologies, made by researchers in Japan.