It is becoming more and more obvious in recent years that carbohydrates present a new dimension in drug design for targeting specific diseases. A buzzword particularly associated with this dimension is specific recognition. Another one is lectins. Yet another one is molecular diversity of carbohydrates. In fact, the list can be continued non-stop since carbohydrates brought a whole new vocabulary into chemistry, biochemistry and related disciplines, and, furthermore, they brought a whole new language in a form of quite distinct characters and images making most professional chemists not privileged to be in the area of carbohydrates to feel not exactly literate. This book will help them and not only them - to understand better where is a current frontline of a mutual challenge between carbohydrate-based drugs and deadly diseases which they target.
There were only three books published dealing with the subject: Carbohydrates in Drug Design (Ed. Z.J. Witczak and K. Nieforth) published by Marcel Dekker in 1997, Complex Carbohydrates in Drug Research: Structural and Functional Aspects, by Klaus Boch, Henrik Clausen and Dennis Boch, published by Blackwell Science Inc. in 1998, and Carbohydrates-based Drug Discovery (Ed. C.-H. Wong), published by Wiley & Sons in 2003 (list price $455.00). Current book covers different areas compared with said books, and includes preclinical studies and clinical trials of carbohydrate-based drugs, drug delivery and pain managements, biocompatibility, clearance and metabolic pathways of carbohydrate drugs, actual medical devices employing carbohydrates, as well as invasion of cancer cells, the protein-glycan interactions and their inhibitors, new carbohydrate-based therapeutics, crystal structure of antibodies with unusually high affinity for carbohydrates, and a number of other features of carbohydrate drugs. Galactomannans and hyaluronans, as well as thio-, imino- and carba-sugars are particularly considered with respect of their structural and functional impacts. The purpose of the planned volume is to further shape the emerging data and thoughts in the new area of carbohydrate drug design. The book will systematize information presented at the Symposium, with inclusion of several additional papers on carbohydrate-based vaccines and carbohydrate-based treatment of some infections, and new data on chemistry of carbohydrates and computation of carbohydrate structures. This additional material comes from individuals who did not participate in the symposium. In the way how the book is structured, it will certainly update existing publications in the area.
