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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Ann Biomed Eng. 2011 Oct 30;40(4):806–815. doi: 10.1007/s10439-011-0450-y

Figure 1. Overview of sialic acid-based MOE.

Figure 1

(A) Sialic acid biosynthesis begins with UDP-GlcNAc, which is converted to CMP-Neu5Ac; in humans Neu5Ac is subsequently installed into cell surface glycans by one of 20 sialyltransferases. (B) Various “R’” modified sialosides can be introduced into glycoconjugates by using the indicated CMP-Neu5Ac analogs. (C) Alternately, the sialic acid pathway can be intercepted with ManNAc analogs bearing (D) non-reactive alkyl N-acyl groups, (E) bioorthogonal functional groups, or (F) fluorinated substituents.