PRINCIPALS OF CONFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS OF CARBOHYDRATES--A TEXTBOOK

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The importance of carbohydrates in several biological processes is now well established. Specific cell-cell recognition, cell-substratum attachment, cell-virus interactions and modulations of growth factor receptors involve oligosaccharide-protein interactions. Also, oligosaccharide-nucleic acid interactions are being reported to play an important role in several biological processes. Thus, the knowledge of the precise molecular structure of the oligosaccharide and its interacting partner is of great importance for designing inhibitors or drugs. Recently a number of tools are being used to study the conformation of carbohydrates and interactions with proteins, but conformational analysis by theoretical techniques are making important contributions, and have come to be recognized as one of the important investigative tools. Theoretical studies, in particular, the application of conformational energy calculations has made it possible to predict the probable structures of even those carbohydrates which are poorly soluble and difficult to crystallize. This has to a large extent helped to fill up the void created by the lack of sufficient x-ray diffraction and NMR data on carbohydrates as compared to nucleic acids and proteins. At present there is no suitable book available that would introduce the students, teachers, research scientists, and beginners in this field of research to the stereochemistry of sugars, to the principles of conformational analysis of carbohydrates, to the available methods used for the analysis of conformation of sugars. Thus, a book that will deal with these topics is highly desirable. It coincided with a timely invitation to our Visiting Scientist, Dr. V.S.R. Rao, from Harwood academic publishers, The Netherlands, to write a book on the principles of conformational analysis of carbohydrates. Dr. Rao, from the Indian Institute of Science (I.I.Sc), Bangalore, India, has developed in a systematic manner, methods for investigating the structures of oligosaccharides, and long chain polysaccharides by utilizing the idea of dihedral angles around the bonds meeting at the bridge oxygen. The time was ripe to compile the structural knowledge in a systematic fashion, and make it easily available to students, teachers and research scientists alike who are interested in carbohydrate structures. We, Dr. V.S.R.Rao, Dr. Pradman K. Qasba, Dr. Petety Balaji, a Visiting Fellow in the Structural Glycobiology Section and now an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, along with Professor R. Chandrasekaran from Purdue University, have succeeded in writing the book on the "Conformation of Carbohydrates" which is now in press.