Using Synthetic Carbohydrates as Biological Targeting and Delivery Agents

Carbohydrate-protein interactions are ubiquitous in mammalian cell systems, are critical to cellular communication, and as a result may be exploited for effective delivery of therapeutic payloads to specific cell types. These interactions remain largely unexploited by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries primarily due to the “myth” that access to the requisite carbohydrate entities are too technically challenging to be practical. This webinar will focus on two areas with the goal of demonstrating that carbohydrates are indeed accessible and can be practical alternatives or adjuncts to more traditional targeting approaches:

• First, a short survey of potentially exploitable carbohydrate-protein interactions will be provided. The focus will be on how endocytic receptors and their known carbohydrate ligands have been leveraged to deliver different payloads, such as nucleic acid drug candidates and therapeutic proteins, to certain cell types.


• Second, case studies exhibiting the practical large-scale synthesis of complex oligosaccharides will be presented and discussed.

With the emergence of many different classes of biotherapeutics, including nucleic acids, antibodies and replacement enzymes, the use of carbohydrates as targeting and delivery agents will become an essential approach to overcoming the technical challenges that hamper realization of the full potential of these therapeutics.