Carbohydrates mediating biological processes

Up to this point all our attention has been directed toward aldoses carbohydrates hav ing an aldehyde function in their open chain form Aldoses are more common than ketoses and their role m biological processes has been more thoroughly studied Nev ertheless a large number of ketoses are known and several of them are pivotal inter mediates m carbohydrate biosynthesis and metabolism Examples of some ketoses include d nbulose l xylulose and d fructose... 

Carbohydrates specifically mediate numerous biological processes that include cell adhesion and differentiation, pathogen invasion, tumor cell metastasis, and inflammatory responses and are therefore of great interest for the generation of therapeutics (/-i). Unfortunately, the molecular basis for most of... 

Carbohydrates, similarly to peptides, are natural sources of chirality and also offer a wide range of ncm-covalent interactions. Molecular recognition of carbohydrates by biological receptors mediates a variety of physiologically relevant processes, including recruitment of leucocytes to inflammatory sites, clearance of glycoproteins from the circulatory system, cell interactions in the immune system, as well as adhesion of bacteria or viruses to host cells. It has been shown that multivalency is especially important for carbohydrate-receptor interactions. The glycoside cluster... 

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