Glyconanoparticles-An Update

This review summarized the progress of glyconanoparticles in the aspects of types, synthesis, and applications for recent five years. A major challenge in the development of Au glyconanoparticles for the study of cellular interactions is to span the cellular membrane, which is used for the drug delivery. A majority of glyco-functionalized quantum dots have been utilized as fluorescent probes for biolabeling, imaging and biosensing. Recently, magnetic nanoparticles have been more frequently used in biomedical applications. The application of these new multivalent systems of glyconanoparticles is to mainly study carbohydrate-mediated interactions, which opens the new field in glycobiology.