Carbohydrates as Polyfunctional Scaffolds in Combinatorial Synthesis

Carbohydrates are inexpensive, polyfunctional molecules which contain a high density of stereogenic centers. Taking advantage of these particular properties monosaccharides like glucose or mannose have been used for the construction of peptidomimetics which simulate recognition sites of somatostatin or RGD ligands of integrins. Due to their poly functionality, carbohydrates are considered promising scaffolds for combinatorial syntheses either in solution or on solid phase. The application of carbohydrate scaffolds, however, requires sets of orthogonally stable, selectively removable protecting groups, and the challenge in this combinatorial strategy increases with increasing number of hydro…