Thiooligosaccharides in glycobiology

The chemical syntheses of thiooligosaccharides which were reported up to the beginning of 1996 are reviewed. Therefore, this article brings up to date previous reviews on thiosugars: (1963) Adv Carbohydr Chem 18:123, (1991) Studies in Natural Products Chemistry, Attar-ur-Rahman (ed), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 8E, p 315 and (1995) Progress in Biotechnology, Petersen SB, Svensson B, Pedersen S (eds) Elsevier, Amsterdam, 10, p 113. Because of the large amount of work published in this area, this paper mainly focuses on the synthesis of thiooligosaccharides which were shown to be recognized by proteins.