Target-Selective Degradation of Oligosaccharides by a Light-Activated Small-Molecule-Lectin Hybrid

摘要

Oligosaccharides play important roles in many biological events, including protein folding, cell signalling, fertilization, pathogen binding to host tissue, leukocyte trafficking and associated inflammatory response, tumour cell metastasis, and regulation of hormone and enzyme activity. The development of innovative methods for selectively controlling specific functions of certain oligosaccharides has attracted much attention in the fields of chemistry, biology, and medicine. However, there have as yet been no reports of methods involving specific inhibition of function by selective degradation of a target oligosaccharide. Herein we report the target-selective degradation of an oligosaccharide induced by a light-activated small-molecule-lectin hybrid. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful example of target-selective degradation of an oligosaccharide by light switching under neutral conditions.