Polyacrylamide-based glycoconjugates as tools for studying lectins, antigens and glycosyltransferases in glycobiology, cytochemistry, and histochemistry

The synthesis, physicochemical characteristics, and application for studying the carbohydrate-binding molecules of some analogues of human cell glycoconjugates, neoglycoconjugates, were reviewed. An approach to the synthesis of the polyacrylamide derivatives of carbohydrates based on the interaction of fully activated polyacrylic acid with omega-aminoalkyl glycosides was described. It provides highly reproducible results, is more simple than the previously known methods of the synthesis of such derivatives, and expands the range of synthetic possibilities because it can provide both the sugar-polymer type molecules and conjugates bearing various labels and effecters, sorbents, glycosurfaces, etc. In the first part of the review, the synthesis of polyacrylamide conjugates and their physicochemical properties were described. In its second part, the synthesis of some complex constructions, such as pseudoglycoproteins, pseudomucins, glycoparticles, and glycosurfaces, was outlined. Some examples of the application of the described conjugates in various fields of glycobiology were simultaneously discussed. Prospects of the further development of the presented approach in glycotechnology and medicine were also described.