Heparan sulfate and heparin are highly sulfated polysaccharides exhibiting important functions in many biological processes.  The backbone structures and sulfation patterns determine the biological activities of heparan sulfate and heparin.  In order to establish the structure and activity relationship of these important molecules, synthetic methodologies need to be developed to access diverse structures bearing defined sulfation patterns and backbone structures.  Traditional synthetic approaches are quite tedious and time-consuming.  In order to overcome this challenge and facilitate biological studies, we are developing a divergent strategy to assemble a library of heparan sulfate structures by interfacing chemical synthesis with enzymatic methods.  Advanced intermediate oligosaccharides were prepared by chemical synthesis, which were subjected to enzymatic modifications.  Through this approach, we have obtained multiple structurally defined heparan sulfate oligosaccharides with designed biological activities.  We are now extending this methodology towards the preparation of a large number of heparan sulfate oligosaccharides as well as heparan sulfate proteoglycans, i.e., glycopeptides and glycoproteins containing heparan sulfate chains.

Chemoenzymatic synthesis of heparan sulfate oligosaccharides

245th National Meeting (2013)

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