Therapeutic Applications of Iminosugars: Current Perspectives and Future Opportunities

The understanding of the role of carbohydrates, their receptors, and their handling processes in the functioning of biological systems is an area in which major advances have been made during the past 20 years. The diverse structures displayed by carbohydrates provide a substantial opportunity for the identification of new chemotherapeutic targets and the development of new therapies. This has motivated both synthetic and medicinal chemists in the pursuit of new medicines although carbohydrates themselves can rarely be employed for this purpose owing to their metabolic instability and rapid degradation in vivo. As a consequence, researchers have focused on the design and synthesis of carbohydrate mimetics with greater stability, affinity, and efficacy. Iminosugars are the most attractive class of carbohydrate mimetics reported to date and are ideally positioned to take advantage of the increasing understanding of this area. The chapter summarizes the status of the iminosugar field providing an overview of the classification, occurrence, and synthesis of iminosugars, before discussing in detail the therapeutic potential of this class of molecule.