Interfering with the sugar code: Design and synthesis of oligosaccharide mimics

Oligosaccharide determinants of cellular glycoconjugates interact with protein receptors triggering a variety of cellular responses within a wide range of physiological and pathological processes and with exquisitely tuned selectivity. This has led to the formulation of the hypothesis that a sugar code exists and that sugar-binding proteins (lectins) act to decipher it and translate it into biological responses. Interference with these recognition events by functional mimics of carbohydrates could thus be used to modulate or alter signal transmission, or to prevent the onset of diseases. Attempts to design and prepare glycomimetic inhibitors of well-known target lectins (cholera toxin, DC-SIGN) are reviewed in this concept paper.