Glyconanoparticles polyvalent tools to study carbohydrate-based interactions

This article deals with the construction, characterization, and applications of nanoparticles functionalized with carbohydrates, reviewing the state of the art and discussing perspectives on the use of these nanomaterials in the fields of glycoscience and glycotechnology. These biofunctional nanostructures, where material science, nanotechnology, and carbohydrate chemical biology meet, offer interesting potential as multivalent systems for interaction studies and for applications in the emerging area of nanomedicine. The term glyconanoparticle was coined in 2001 to denote nanoparticles constructed by "covalent" linkage of neoglycoconjugates equipped with a thiol end-group to gold. These gold glyconanoparticles, first defined as water-soluble, three-dimensional multivalent model systems based on sugar-modified gold nanoclusters presenting a glycocalix-like surface with a globular carbohydrate display, have been used as tools in carbohydrate-based interaction studies and to interfere in biological process where carbohydrates are involved. The possibility of replacing the gold inorganic core by a wide variety of materials permits access to a range of glyconanoparticles having different optical, electronic, mechanical, and magnetic properties, whose size can be modulated and whose glycocalix-like surface can be engineered to modify multivalence and insert multifunctionality.