Aminopolysaccharides are important, functional components of many living systems, ranging from extracellular matrices in man, to the shells of crustaceans like lobsters and crabs. They perform numerous vital roles including mediation of cell-cell adhesion, cellular motility, and joint lubrication, and are used by pathogens as cellular recognition elements. Clearly analogs of such important natural polysaccharides would be attractive targets for biomedical scientists, but they are not so easy to synthesize, especially to synthesize with precise control over the location of the amine functionality. We will describe our work to develop general methods for regioselective synthesis of aminopolysaccharides, and substituted aminopolysaccharides, using the cellulose (chitosan isomers), pullulan, and curdlan backbones. The products are designed for interactions with proteins potentially to drive important biomedical processes.

Regioselectively synthesized aminopolysaccharides for high performance applications

247th National Meeting (2014)

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