Sugar Furanoses as Useful Handles for Molecular Diversity

Carbohydrates have been recognized as privileged structures for the regio- and stereo-controlled appendage of pharmacophores to generate new derivatives with potential application in drug discovery processes. Even though most of the carbohydrate templates have been generated from pyranoses, other sugar derivatives have also been employed in the assembly of such structures. In this review, attention has been directed to the use of sugar-furanose platforms, and an account of the recent developments in the generation of furanose-based templates aiming at the generation of molecular diversity, including those from our research group, is presented.