Nanostructured Materials for Glycan based Applications

The fields of nanoscience and glycoscience have found increasing fruitful intersections in which  glycans  are used to modify nanomaterials and also in which nanomaterials modified with biomolecular recognition elements are used to probe glycan compositions. In this article, the development of glycan-modified nanomaterials primarily in the form of nanoparticles is surveyed. The nanomaterials that have been cornerstones since the emergence of nanoscience as a broad focus area are shown to have all found interesting applications when modified by glycans ranging from single sugars to more complex oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. These novel functionalized nanoparticles present glycans in a multivalent manner that can couple enhanced binding to changes in the physical response of the nanomaterials in ways that make them useful for applications such as biosensing, capture and enrichment of glycans, biological imaging, drug delivery, as anti-viral and anti-bacterial agents, and in cancer treatments based on immunotherapy and photothermal ablation. The nanomaterials used include  gold nanoparticles  or nanorods,  magnetic nanoparticles , carbon-based nanomaterials such as  fullerenes  and nanotubes, quantum dots,  mesoporous  nanoparticles, core-shell  nanoparticle  structures, and nanostructured fibers. Each type of  nanomaterial  offers novel physical properties that can be exploited in glycan-based applications.