Although it is still under debate whether in human's body there are ten times more bacterial cells than human cells, it is true that these two are essential for human health. To recognize the unfriendly 'bad' bacteria and cells is undoubtedly an important task in health related researches. Sugar chains play critical roles in biological processes such as cell signaling and molecular recognition,[1] and synthetic polymers with pendent carbohydrate moieties widely called 'glycopolymers'[2-3] have attracted much attention in intensive research and biological engineering due to advancements of polymerization techniques and their ability of mimicking biological functions in recognition processes. Herein, we designed and synthesized functional glycopolymer-based materials that can recognize cancer cells or have high affinity toward bacteria. To avoid unwanted interactions, selectivity is required to discriminate between the target and others. By picking the right sugar, with other helpful elements such as aptamer and pH-sensitive molecule, we rebuild them to form synthetic complex glycopolymers for recognizing cancer cells or bacteria. In addition, sugar chains are synthesized with targeted sequence via a bacteria-templated polymerization technique without resorting to multi-step glycan synthesis, which provides a simple approach for the preparation of glycopolymers with high recognition ability.

Synthetic glycopolymers for recognizing cells and bacteria

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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