Medical applications carbohydrates

B.M. Cherian, A.L. Leao, S.R Souza, L.M.M.C. Costa, G.M. Olyveira, M. Kottaisamy, E.R. Nagarajan and S. Thomas, Cellulose nanocomposites with nanofibres isolated from pineapple leaf fibers for medical applications. Carbohydr. Polym. 86,1790-1798 (2011). 

Pfannemtiller et al. showed that it is possible to obtain carbohydrate-containing amphiphiles with various alkyl chains via amide bond formation. For this, mal-tooligosaccharides were oxidized to the corresponding aldonic acid lactones, which could subsequently be coupled to alkylamines [128-136]. Such sugar-based surfactants are important industrial products with applications in cosmetics, medical applications etc. [137-139]. The authors were also able to extend the attached mal-tooligosaccharides by enzymatic polymerization using potato phosphorylase, which resulted in products with very interesting solution properties [140, 141]. 

This chapter is divided into two sections. Section 6.1 is concerned with applications of Raman spectroscopy to biochemistry. Related topics to this section are found in Section 3.3.3 of Chapter 3 (SER spectra of dipeptides) and Section 4.1.2 of Chapter 4 (Raman (RR) spectra of peptides, proteins, porphyrins, enzymes and nucleic acids), Section 6.2 describes medical applications of Raman spectroscopy as analytical and diagnostic tools. In contrast to biochemical samples discussed in the former section, medical samples in the latter section contain a number of components such as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids, etc. Thus, Raman spectra of medical samples are much more complex and must be interpreted with caution. 

P. J. Garegg and A. A. Lindberg, The Synthesis of Oligosaccharides for Biological and Medical Applications, in Carbohydrate Chemistry, J. E Kennedy (Ed.), Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1988, Chapter 1.2. 

The most important by-product of the analytic and synthetic work accomplished so far is knowledge about the stereochemistry and reactivity of natural compounds. There is an enormous potential for the chemists of the twenty-first century lying in the mastery and application of this knowledge in order to produce organized and finally functional materials. Typical contemporary examples include surface monolayers on metals and colloids made of fatty acid and steroid derivatives, the regio- and stereoselective assembly reactions between steroids and carbohydrates, coupled redox chains of metalloporphyrins and vitamins, noncovalent fibers made of amino acids, nucleotides, and saccharides, and the functionalization of proteins by incorporation of reactive molecules. The field of supramolecular or noncovalent natural compound chemistry has been scientifically fruitful for several decades and is presently exploited for the development of useful molecular devices and machines as well as for medical applications. 

Carbohydrate Chemistry, Biology and Medical Applications Hari G. Garg, Mary K. Cowman and Charles A. Hales 2008 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved DOI 10.1016/B978-0-08-054816-6.00001-X... 

In this chapter, we attempt to illustrate a few examples, with a focus on infectious diseases, to discuss the medical application of carbohydrate microarrays. We also discuss the principles for construction of various platforms of carbohydrate microarrays. This information may be helpful in selecting the proper technologies to address biomedical questions related to carbohydrates. 

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