Fluorinated carbohydrate-based vaccines

The structural virtuosity of carbohydrates forms the basis of a molecular recognition language that is ubiquitous in immunomodulatory processes. This diversity generates the complexity required to accommodate the bandwidth of information generated by immune interactions: it logically follows that this capacity underpins the evolutionary success of oligosaccharide permutations in this endeavour. Placing glycan function on a structural level is therefore a core research endeavour in understanding the non-covalent interactions that elicit an immune response and, by extension, leveraging these data to identify and validate new vaccine leads. Innovations to expedite the construction of well-defined, immuno-relevant carbohydrates has revolutionized the field, and focused attention on further structural refinements that are new to biology. Echoing the success of site-selective fluorination in pharmaceutical design, the precision introduction of C(sp³)-F bonds to tailor the physicochemical properties of key targets is an exciting new frontier in targeted immunology. In this short Perspective, the key milestones in the design and validation of carbohydrate-based vaccine leads are discussed through the lense of fluorination.