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Updated: Jan 20, 2026

Chemo-enzymatic Synthesis of N-glycans for Array Development and HIV Antibody Profiling
Published on: February 5, 2018
A top-down chemo-enzymatic approach towards N-acetylglucosamine-N-acetylmuramic oligosaccharides: Chitosan as a
Fausto Queda1, Gonçalo Covas2, Tomé Silva1
1LAQV@REQUIMTE, Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
Abstract:
An unprecedented approach towards oligosaccharides containing N-acetylglucosamine-N-acetylmuramic (NAG-NAM) units was developed. These novel bacterial cell wall surrogates were obtained from chitosan via a top down approach involving both chemical and enzymatic reactions. The chemical modification of chitosan using a molecular clamp based strategy, allowed obtaining N-acetylglucosamine-N-acetylmuramic (NAG-NAM) containing oligomers. Intercalation of NAM residues was confirmed through the analysis of oligosaccharide fragments from enzymatic digestion and it was found that this route affords NAG-NAM containing oligosaccharides in 33% yield. These oligosaccharides mimic the carbohydrate basic skeleton of most bacterial cell surfaces. The oligosaccharides prepared are biologically relevant and will serve as a platform for further molecular recognition studies with different receptors and enzymes of both bacterial cell wall and innate immune system. This strategy combining both chemical modification and enzymatic digestion provides a novel and simple route for an easy access to bacterial cell wall fragments - biologically important targets.
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