| Heparin is a highly sulfated glycosaminoglycan; a heterogeneous polysaccharide that exhibit anticoagulant activity. The commercial drug, Arixtra (fondaparinux sodium), is a structurally homogeneous heparin pentasaccharide (an ultralow molecular weight heparin). The current chemical synthesis is rather lengthy (≈50 steps) and low yielding(<1%). A promising alternative approach developed by our laboratory and others is to chemoenzymatically synthesize heparins utilizing both uridine diphosphate sugars as electrophilic donors and the para beta&... |
