A Potentially Valuable Advance in the Synthesis of Carbohydrate-Based Anticancer Vaccines through Extended Cycloaddition Chemistry

An advance in the long-term problem of joining complex oligosaccharides to polypeptides and even proteins is described herein. The key method involves equipping the oligosaccharide sector with an azide and the polypeptide with pendant alkynyl functionality. The two sectors are joined through a "click-like" cycloaddition. The method encompasses oligosaccharide constructs with several azide linkages which undergo concurrent cycloaddition to peptide-based acetylenes. This technology could well prove to be useful in the construction of fully synthetic vaccines.