New Approaches to the Synthesis of Glycohybrids

Abstract

Glycosides are formed when the anomeric carbon of sugar (glycone) forms a covalent bond with an aglycone and makes new C-C, C-S, C-O, or C-N bonds; these compounds are referred to as glycosides. Glycones can be used as privileged scaffolds that can be linked with a sugar moiety (glycone) and create small molecules called glycohybrids. Synthetic glycohybrids are extremely important in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry because of their distinct molecular structures and resistance to enzymatic and chemical hydrolysis. These molecules can be used in medicinal chemistry, nanotechnology, materials science, and synthetic biology as diagnostic tools and biomaterials. Consequently, enormous effort has been directed toward the synthesis of structurally diverse C-, S-, O-, N-glycosides and glycohybrids. This chapter highlights the new methods which have been developed for the synthesis of glycohybrid molecules.