An extensive review of studies on mycobacterium cell wall polysaccharide-related oligosaccharides – part III: synthetic studies and biological applications of arabinofuranosyl oligosaccharides and their analogs, derivatives and conjugates

Lipoarabinomannan (LAM), mannosyl LAM (ManLAM), and mycolyl-arabinogalactan (mAG) are unique and ubiquitous cell wall constituents of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). It has been well documented that LAM, ManLAM, and mAG play an important role in mycobacterial infections and in the elicitation of specific immune responses against M. tb in the host. Therefore, LAM, ManLAM, mAG, and related molecules are attractive targets for the development of novel TB diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Accordingly, many research groups have spent great efforts in the chemical synthesis and biological studies of mycobacterium-related arabinofuranosyl oligosaccharides and their mimetics and conjugates. This article provides an extensive review about the progresses in this area. Due to the page limit of this journal, the review is published in three parts separately. This part (Part III) is focused on the biological applications of synthetic, structurally well-defined and homogeneous Arabinofuranosyl oligosaccharides and their mimetics or conjugates to gain in-depth understanding of mycobacterial cell wall biosynthesis, host-pathogen interaction and other M. tb-related biological issues and their structure-activity relationships to guide new drug and vaccine design and development.