Glycopeptides biological role

The relevant biological role of glycopeptides and the need to generate mimics of biopolymers, such as peptidomimetics, suggest the importance of these molecules as key synthetic targets. 

Several combinatorial approaches for the synthesis of glyco-amino acids have been developed, due to the complexity of carbohydrate conjugates. The synthetic challenge is to get access to these building blocks by automated synthesis in order to generate glycopeptides library, to fully understand their biological roles and to widen their use in medicinal chemistry. 

The general biology and metabolism, including such diverse subjects as the biosynthesis, adaptive synthesis, presence or absence in other areas of the body of the fish, and possible biological roles of the smaller inactive proline-containing glycopeptides. 

Kerns R, Dong SD, Fukuzawa S et al (2000) The role of hydrophobic substituents in the biological activity of glycopeptide antibiotics. J Am Chem Soc 122 12608-12609... 

The above methods for glycopeptide synthesis have started to gain tremendous attention for applications in the preparation of various biologically relevant glycopeptides and glycoproteins. The role of these techniques in the areas of vaccine development, antibiotics, and novel therapeutics is discussed in the sections that follow. 

Mackay JP, Gerhard U, Beauregard DA, Williams DH, Westwell MS, Searle MS (1994) Glycopeptide antibiotic activity and the possible role of dimerization a model for biological signaling. J Am Chem Soc 116 4581-4590... 

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