Five years patenting time frame concerning enzymatic preparation of glycosides

Carbohydrates are important molecules in various technological fields. The regio- and stereoselective synthesis of oligosaccharides for food and pharmaceutical molecular design and the selective glycosylation of peptides, proteins and drugs, as well as the selective hydrolysis of natural abundant saccharidic materials affording low molecular weight high value- added products, can be all considered significant aspects. Advance in the chemical synthesis of glycosidic bond represents one of the most successful topic in organic synthetic chemistry in the last half century for the intrinsic difficulties chemists have to face dealing with carbohydrates: yields and selectivity. Biocatalytic strategies selected for high-yield and stereospecific construction of glycosidic bonds are based principally on the action of two classes of enzymes, namely glycoside hydrolases (endo- and exo-glycosidases) and glycosyltransferases although only enzymes of the second class are devoted to synthetic action in nature. Reviewing patents on the preparation of glycosides is hard to manage, here a five years time frame for this review is set, considering it a suitable compromise in terms of amount of innovation and numbers of patents to analyze. Interest of researchers for the natural sources of biocatalysts, with particular emphasis on modified enzymes and lists of the most innovative patents in cosmetic, fine chemicals and food fields will be commented. Biomolecular asset of selected patents related to glycosides will be expressly considered. Large number of enzymes will be required in future in order to realize more sustainable new enzymatic processes to answer human needs.