Research process of iminosugars in glycosidase inhibition and hypoglycemic activity

Abstract

Multivalent effect or glycocluster effect is a natural phenomenon, especially for the carbohydrate-protein interactions.Multivalent glycoclusters have been widely studied, which show significantly stronger binding interactions with proteins compared with the monovalent ligands. However, the development of multivalent glycoclusters based on iminosugars was relatively late. In this review, we systematically summarized the structural features and biological applications of monoiminosugars, and highlighted self-assembled multivalent glycosidase inhibitors and their applications in glucosidase inhibition activities, hypoglycemic effect and antimicrobial properties. Finally, we prospect the potential applications of iminosugars in the development of long-acting hypoglycemic drugs and integrated functional molecules with both hypoglycemic and antibacterial agents.