Precision glycopolymers and their interactions with lectins

Glycopolymers are synthetic polymers with carbohydrate groups attached and have a great potential to be utilized in drug delivery applications and nanomedicines as a result of their recognition properties. Sugar code is running in living entities with extreme precision and every small difference in the oligosaccharide structure significantly affects the recognition by lectins. Therefore, controlling the sequence of sugars along the polymer backbone is vital to achieve selective lectin binding and cell signalling. The preparation of sequence controlled glycopolymers has recently been in the focus of several research groups and the cons and pros of three recently published approaches are discussed in this minireview.