Abstract

Mimics of oligosaccharides capable of interfering with lectin activity are currently being pursued by a number of groups in an effort to produce tools for glycobiology and to design antagonists of medically relevant lectins. The field is reviewed in this chapter. After a brief overview of the state of the art, examples from our and others’ studies on the dendritic cell receptor DC-SIGN are illustrated.

Keywords: Carbohydrates, glycomimetics, C-type lectins and DC-SIGN, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, LECTINS, carbohydrate-encoded, high-mannose, oligosaccharides