“Clickable” glycoconjugates – a new approach to the synthesis of bioconjugates

Carbohydrates have been heavily exploited in the development of new therapeutic agents. Extensively utilized in nuclear medicine, derivatives such as [18F]-FDG (13) have gained broad usage in the diagnosis of malignancies. Displaying high selectivity and favourable pharmacokinetics, carbohydrates have subsequently been incorporated into peptide-based imaging agents, producing diagnostic probes with greatly improved physicochemical properties. The efficient radiolabelling of glycoconjugate-based imaging agents however represents a significant challenge, with many glycoconjugates prone to degradation under current radiolabelling conditions.