Heteroaryl thioglycosides, a new class of substrates for glycosidases

Glycoconjugates are one of the most functionally and structurally diverse molecules in nature; it is now well established that protein- and lipid-bounded saccharides play essential role in many molecular processes in living organisms [1-3]. The notion that carbohydrates are biologically important molecules and that many human diseases are associated with alterations of cellular carbohydrates resulted in a great interest in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, especially in glycosidation reaction [4]. Chemical syntheses of such compounds are limited, at least for larger scalework, by many protection, activation and deprotection steps. The need for efficient methods for oligosaccharide synthesis has stimulated the development of enzymatic methods [5].