ABSTRACT
Carbohydrates, often named glycans, represent the most diverse class of biomolecules with vast structural diversity to form complex branched structures compared to other fundamental biomolecules like proteins and nucleic acids. Glycan diversity ranges from being linear or branched with α or β linkages between the monosaccharide units. Due to their structural diversity, glycans perform various biological functions quite distinct from that of proteins and nucleic acids, which mainly involve cellular interactions, cell recognition, various cellular and immunological processes important for the development and functioning of complex multicellular organisms. The process of glycosylation enhances and diversifies the structural and functional ability of sugars. Advances in glycobiology techniques have established a critical role of glycosylation in health and diseases with a special focus on congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) occurring due to faulty N-and O-linked glycosylation of proteins. With the advent of new techniques such as glycomimetics, glycan arrays, glycoengineering of metabolic intermediates and glycan therapy, glycobiologists have successfully carried out glycan-based clinical trials for various diseases. The inefficiency of carbohydrates due to low immune response (as they are T-cell independent antigens) has been overcome by use of conjugation technology in which different types of carrier peptide molecules like KLH, 2BSA, TT, CRM197 and gold nanoparticles (AuNP) have been attached with carbohydrate antigens to elicit a strong T-cell response and presentation to MHC molecule. Various infectious diseases like influenza, pneumonia, and cancer have been targeted with hopeful human trials by the development of multivalent conjugate vaccines. Glycomimetic molecules, which mimic the carbohydrate skeletons, are quite useful in understanding the role of carbohydrates and other intermediates in biological processes. The development of glycan microarrays, especially lectin arrays, has paved the way for glycome profiling to elucidate carbohydrate-protein, carbohydrate ligand interactions involved in endogenous receptor system host-parasite interactions. Advancements in mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques and bioinformatic analysis have enabled researchers to investigate the complex cellular glycoproteome to gain a deeper insight into the cellular and physiological activities corresponding to a disease. Owing to these technological advancements, glycobiology is fastly emerging as a primary field of interest for biomolecular and biomedical research with sugars now being widely recognized as vital components of cellular life. The present chapter was designed to provide latest glycobiology trends with a focus on carbohydrate-based therapeutics, glycan arrays, glycomimetics, and advances in MS techniques for characterization of glycans.
