Heparan sulfates (HSs) have variant structures which represent a molecular code, the 'heparanome', that confers the ability to interact selectively with a wide interactome of proteins that influences many cellular processes important in the development, regulation and repair of tissues. Understanding the chemical biology of these enigmatic molecules is now becoming possible through a variety of tools, reagents and approaches including saccharide libraries (for exploitation in protein interaction methods and bioassays), microarray methods (for mapping interactions and functional specificity) and novel sequencing approaches (using ES mass spectroscopy). We have developed semi-synthetic and synthetic chemistry strategies to produce targeted libraries for activity screening to decode the molecular basis of the functional diversity of HS. This has yielded new insights into this code and led to biomedical applications, including discovery of novel drug leads for Alzheimers disease, and potential interventions to improve neural cell transplantation for nerve repair.

Chemical biology of heparan sulfates: From insights to applications in neurodegeneration and nerve repair

245th National Meeting (2013)

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