A Glycotherapeutic Approach to Functionalize Biomaterials- Based Systems

 In addition to being one of the primary building block materials of living

cells, glycans are also favorable candidates for therapeutic applications. In

the mid-20th century, the progress of glycans in the drug discovery field

became surpassed by protein and DNA-focused treatments. However, the

emergence of new analytical tools and methods to synthesize structurally

specific glycans has encouraged and motivated the scientific community

toward the development of glycan-based therapeutics. This review

discusses the reemergence of glycan-based agents in the last decade

and the technical strategies that played a key role in bringing the glycanbased

treatments into the limelight of modern medicine. The review also

includes the application of native glycans as the therapeutic agents along

with the chemically engineered cell surface glycans and proteins to meet

the preclinical and clinical scenario. Glycan-based therapeutic materials

hold a huge potential that can be harnessed to meet the clinical needs in

medicine.