Nucleosides exhibit a broad spectrum of biological activity that generally results from their ability to inhibit specific enzymes. This activity has led to their use in the development of various pharmaceutical agents used in the treatment of cancers and to combat harmful viruses, bacteria and parasites. Nucleoside Mimetics provides an introduction to the chemistry of nucleoside mimetics, which combines carbohydrate, heterocyclic and asymmetric synthesis. The book gives a comprehensive introduction to nucleosides and coverage of the various classes. The aim of Nucleoside Mimetics is to provide the reader with a useful insight into the diversity of nucleosides, the range of elegant chemistry involved and the continuing importance of nucleosides as both therapeutic agents and as probes for studying biochemical processes.

This third edition is a comprehensive and extended study about the best known approaches for preparing the main types of glycosides, covering the classic and more recent glycosylation reactions used for preparing simple and challenging glycosides currently used as potent antiviral and antineoplastic drugs, or fluorogenic substrates used for enzymatic detection in cell biology. Besides, this new edition provides more examples of the glycosidic methodologies followed for preparing complex glycoconjugates such as glycoproteins and glycosphingolipids and gangliosides used as adjuvants or as synthetic vaccines candidates. Also, additional mechanistic evidence is presented for better understanding of the glycosylation reaction, trying to identify the variables mainly depending on protecting and leaving groups, as well as catalyst and reaction condition which altogether directs the anomeric stereo control. A chapter on the glycoside hydrolysis is included in view of the increasing interest in the use of biomass as a natural and renewable source for obtaining important intermediates or products used in food or valuable materials. The author includes information in the characterization of glycosides section with the aim of giving additional tools for the structural assignment through NMR, X-Ray and mass spectra techniques.

Carbohydrate Mimics Concepts and Methods Edited by Yves Chapleur Apart from the various functions of carbohydrates in natural processes they are important building blocks for drugs, especially antibiotics. In addition, carbohydrates are considered as important structures in the immunological recognition process of the antigen-antibody reaction. The modification of the structure and thereby the chemistry of substrates is a common procedure in nature. This naturally occurring process is reflected in the concept of molecular mimicry, which has become a useful approach in drug discovery. The search for carbohydrate analogues that exhibit better binding activity, biological activity, and stability began with the synthesis of azasugars. A lot of structural modifications around the anomeric center of carbohydrates has been achieved over the last decade, and these are summarized in terms of the different chemical and biological aspects of carbohydrate mimics in one part of this book. In addition to the well established fields of C-glycosides, azasugars and carbasugars the other part of the book focusses on outstanding achievements in carbohydrate mimic research. Everybody who is active in carbohydrate research or is interested in moving into this exciting field will benefit from this up-to-date source of informations. The leading experts in this field describe their scientific approaches to real interdisciplinary puzzles. This book should be an inspiration to scientists in organic, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and biology.

While adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is described as the universal currency of energy in all living organisms at the cellular level, the actual power lies in its phosphate tail. This book is the first dedicated to the field of nucleoside triphosphate (NTP). Its 13 chapters encompass the contributions of twenty scientists from both academia and industry. It provides collective information on the chemical, physiochemical, and biological properties of both natural and modified NTP and their application in life sciences. Three chapters review families of enzymes that depend on nucleotides for assembling DNA and RNA molecules. The appendix includes supporting NMR data.

"Therapeutic applications of quadruplex nucleic acids provides a single comprehensive survey that describes and assesses recent advances in quadruplex therapeutics and targeting strategies. It also covers the underlying fundamentals of such topics as quadruplex structure, small-molecule recognition, biological roles of genomic quadruplexes, and quadruplex informatics"--P. [4] of cover.