Biomedical Applications
Synthetic glycopharmaceuticals based on carbohydrates with potential biological activity.
Biomedical studies: development of glycopharmaceuticals
The synthetic methods used by Glycoworld have been applied to the synthesis of biologically important or therapeutically relevant molecules. Our lab synthesized and studied carbohydrate molecules to determine their involvement in biological processes associated with various human diseases.
There are many other classes of therapeutically active carbohydrates


Recent collaborative projects include syntheses of tumor-associated glycosphingolipids that mediate the metastasis of carcinomas (with Stine) and those involved in pathogenesis of Krabbe disease (with Sands).
Glycoworld has obtained glycoconjugates of S. pneumoniae, serogroups 6 and 14 (with Nahm), as well as Staph. aureus types 5 and 8 (with Pfizer), important bacterial pathogens.
The Glycoworld group has synthesized a series of glycopeptides as anti-septicemia (with Nichols) and anti-cancer therapeutics (with Spadaro). A series of our compounds have been investigated as imaging reagents in vivo (with Wang).
We have also been studying thioimidates (with Byers and with Daniellou) and aminosugars (with Orlean and Price) as inhibitors or substrates for various enzymes.
Supported by the University of Missouri System research and creative works strategic investment program, Glycoworld has established and coordinated operation of the UMSL Glycoscience Consortium to accelerate development of qlycopharmaceuticals. Current Principal Investigators of the Consortium include Professors Bauer, Nichols, Spilling, Stine, and Wong (all UMSL).




S. Visansirikul, S. A. Kolodziej, and A. V. Demchenko. Synthesis of oligosaccharide fragments of capsular polysaccharide Staphylococcus aureus type 8.
J. Carbohydr. Chem., 2020, 39, 301-333


S. Visansirikul, S. A. Kolodziej, and A. V. Demchenko. Staphylococcus aureus capsular polysaccharides: a structural and synthetic perspective. Org. Biomol. Chem., 2020, 18, 783-798;
PMID: 31922180


L. Guillotin, Z. Assaf, S. G. Pistorio, P. Lafite, A. V. Demchenko, and R. Daniellou. Hydrolysis of glycosyl thioimidates by glycoside hydrolase requires remote activation for efficient activity. Catalysts, 2019, 9, 826 (front cover); (1R01-28)


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