2020/07/01

On the mechanism of glycosidic bond formation

The mechanism of a key chemical reaction: the formation of the glycosidic linkage of glycans has been disentangled using a variety of chemical, NMR, kinetic and theoretical methodologies.

The research has been led by Dr. Juan Luis Asensio at the Institute of Organic Chemistry (CSIC, Madrid) with the participation of the Computational Chemistry and Chemical Glycobiology groups at
CIC bioGUNE, as well as scientists from CIB-CSIC (Madrid), the University of Zaragoza, and the University of la Rioja.;

The investigation has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.0c05525) and describes the essential intermediates in these triflate-mediated reactions, providing a detailed view of the different steps involved.

This new fundamental knowledge can now be employed for designing and preparing specific saccharides of biological and biomedical interest.