Synthetic Cellular Chemistry Laboratory
Chief Scientist
Yukishige ITO (D.Phar.)
Glycoconjugates such as glycoproteins and glycolipids contain glycan chains. The latter are intimately connected with in various biological events, such as cell-cell recognition, differentiation and malignant transformation. It is becoming clear that they also play critical roles in glycoprotein activity control, stabilization, folding and degradation. Synthesis of complex and structurally diverse glycan chains is a challenging subject in synthetic organic chemistry. It is attracting a broad attention as an important area at the interface with biology. Based on these backgrounds, various attempts to synthesize glycoconjugates, particularly glycoproteins and related compounds are under current investigation, which aims at the clarification of biological roles of glycan chains. The development of new methodologies in glycan chain synthesis is another major on going subject of investigation. This program aims at establishment of fully selective and rapid assembly of glycoconjugate related glycan chains. Computational approach on glycan chains is also performed in order to clarify the conformation of biologically active oligosaccharides.
- Development of syntheic methodologies for creation of glycoconjugate-related molecules
- Synthetic sutdies on biologically important glycoconjugates
- Studies on intracellular functions of glycoproteins
- Development of polysaccharide derived materials
- July 13, 2007
- Synthetic Cellular Chemistry Laboratory of DRI achieved the first synthesis of cis-N-acetyl-D-glycosamine, an amino saccharide that exhibits potent anti-Helicobacter pylori properties.
- August 15, 2008
- Chemical synthesis of sugar chains to unravel the mysteries of their roles in biological phenomena
- October 05,2007
- Sweet synthesis to aid understanding of bacteria
A new route to synthesize an antibiotic may also lead to new drugs
- Ishiwata, A. and Ito, Y.:
"Synthesis of docosasaccharide arabina motif of mycobacterial cell wall"
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 2275-2291 (2011). - Totani, K., Ihara, Y., Tsujimoto, T., Matsuo, I., and Ito, Y.:
"The recognition motif of the folding-sensor enzyme UDP-Glc:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase"
Biochemistry 48, 2933-2940 (2009) - Manabe, S., Ishii, K., Hashizume, D., Koshino, H., and Ito, Y.:
"Evidence for endocyclic cleavage of conformationally restricted glycopyranosides "
Chem. Eur. J., 6894-6901 (2009) - Watanabe, T., Totani, K., Matsuo, I., Maruyama, J., Kitamoto, K., and Ito, Y.:
"Genetic analysis of glucosidase II β-subunit in trimming of high-mannose-type glycans"
Glycobiology, 19, 834-840 (2009) - Lee, Y.J., Ishiwata, A., and Ito, Y.:
"Stereoselective Synthesis of β-L-Rhamnopyranosides"
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130, 6330-6331 (2008). - Totani, K., Ihara, Y., Matsuo, I., and Ito, Y.:
"Effects of macromolecular crowding on glycoprotein processing enzymes"
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130, 2101-2107 (2008) - Manabe, S., Ishii, K., and Ito, Y.:
"N-Benzyl-2,3-oxazolidinone as a glycosyl donor for selective a-glycosylation and one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis involving 1,2-cis-glycosylation"
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130, 10666-10667 (2006). - Ishiwata, A., Akao, H., and Ito, Y.:
"Stereoselective Synthesis of a Fragment of Mycobacterial Arabinan"
Org. Lett., 24, 5525-5528 (2006) - Totani, K., Matsuo, I., Ihara, Y., and Ito, Y.:
"Substrate specificity analysis of endoplasmic reticulum glucosidase II using synthetic high-mannose-type glycans"
J. Biol. Chem., 281, 31502-31508 (2006) - Totani, K., Ihara, Y., Matsuo, I., Koshino H., and Ito, Y.:
"Synthetic substrates for an endoplasmic reticulum protein-foliding sensor, UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase"
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 44, 7950-7954 (2005)