Recent advances in the metallo-glycodendrimers and its potential applications

Ever since the discovery of the phenomenon of multivalent representation of sugar to enhance the binding affinity of specific carbohydrate-protein interactions, the quest for the construction of carbohydrate clusters, with precise geometries that are highly specific to lectin, has been the goal of synthetic chemists. In addition to multivalency, the presence of redox, fluorescence, radioactive nature of glyco-cluster will improve the prospect of direct readout of specific carbohydrate-protein interactions. To address this question, the design of metallo-glycodendrimers with precise sugar topology is critically important. In this review, we provides an overview of the important roles that metallo-glycodendrimers can play as lectin binding molecules, highlighting the unique properties metals can confer to these studies.