A new method for the preparation of libraries of important sugars

To date, preparing libraries of sugar compounds for biological research has been slow and tedious. Researchers from the University of Georgia found a way to make the process easier

Years ago a number of scientists found a way to mechanize the production of DNA and proteins - an advance that made conducting research into these vital components of life easier. The production of complex sugars (carbohydrates) was a completely different story.

To date, preparing libraries of sugar compounds for biological research has been slow and tedious. In a move that could change that, a team of scientists at the University of Georgia has developed a method for the rapid chemical synthesis of complex sugars, and this method could dramatically change the availability of these compounds for research.

"In the past, it simply took too long to prepare these materials, which held back progress in the field," said Geert-Jan Boons, professor of chemistry and head of the study. "Now, we have a new method of synthesis, with which we can prepare well-defined isolates that are available for in-depth study." The method was published in an article in the scientific journal Nature Chemistry. "The development of the field of glycomics - the comprehensive study of sugars - (glycomics, The entry in Wikipedia) was greatly delayed due to the lack of stable and well-defined libraries of sugar compounds, which are the most needed materials in deciphering the "sugar codes" used by cells for their various processes, such as cell signaling, embryonic development and nerve cell development," said one of the researchers.

"Dr. Boons developed an important innovative method for the fast and mechanized preparation of complex sugars, a development that will advance the field one step closer to achieving the mechanized synthesis of important sugars."

The ability to examine and understand the roles of oligosaccharides - chains of simple sugars that are also found on the surface of the cell in all plants and in plants - is extremely important. These sugars are involved in cellular processes such as protein folding, the control of cellular signaling and fertilization. These complex sugars are also used as markers identified by pathogens during inflammation, help control the body's immune response and have various roles in the development of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

The problem is that making sugar chains for biological research was complicated and slow. Unlike DNA, which can be made to replicate itself millions of times in a laboratory for research, these compounds have to be built one by one, and more challenging than that, they are able to bind to each other in different ways, which makes the chemical link between them complicated. This challenge has existed for a hundred years.

Although there has been, according to the scientists, "great progress" in the use of chemical or enzymatic approaches to the preparation of these compounds, the synthesis of a single, defined derivative is still lengthy and can take even a whole year."

In the new method lies a possible promise of saving time, when the procedures allow the scientists to avoid the stages of cleaning the intermediates and reach full mechanization of the entire process.

"One of the ways to understand the full meaning of the problems we encountered is to understand that while DNA and proteins are straight compounds in which the structural units (nucleosides or amino acids, respectively) are connected together in one way, then sugars are branched structures that can be connected together in two different ways," says the researcher. "Also, it is very difficult to control the configuration of these links in the laboratory. And this is essential if we are to find ways to prepare these new libraries of materials for research."

The new method allows the researchers to control the configuration of these links and to add several cleavage points, characteristics that allow these sugars to be more easily prepared without the need for intermediate purification steps. In order to test the effectiveness of the innovative method, the research team chose to test the preparation of two important sugars - glucose and galactose - and the findings for them proved that the method is fast, reliable and may be extremely important for the construction of complex sugars for research purposes. Additional experiments should verify that the method is also suitable for preparing other complex sugars.

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