Abstract
Therapeutic vaccines derived from carbohydrate antigen–adjuvant combinations are a promising approach for cancer immunotherapy. One of the critical limitations in this area is access to sufficient quantities of tumour-associated carbohydrate antigens and glycoconjugate adjuvants. At present, availability of the complex oligosaccharide constructs that are needed for the systematic design and evaluation of novel vaccine formulations relies on de novo chemical synthesis. The use of both state-of-the-art and emerging glycosylation technologies has led to significant advances in this field, allowing the clinical exploration of carbohydrate-based antigens in the treatment of cancer.
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Acknowledgements
We thank P. O. Livingston for assistance in proof-reading this article. Research on carbohydrate synthesis in the laboratory of D.Y.G. is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
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Galonić, D., Gin, D. Chemical glycosylation in the synthesis of glycoconjugate antitumour vaccines. Nature 446, 1000–1007 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05813
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