Glyconanoparticles: types, synthesis and applications in glycoscience, biomedicine and material science.

Nanoparticles are the subject of numerous papers and reports and are full of promises for electronic, optical, magnetic and biomedical applications. Although metallic nanoparticles have been functionalized with peptides, proteins and DNA during the last 20 years, carbohydrates have not been used with this purpose until 2001. Since the first synthesis of gold nanoparticles functionalized with carbohydrates (glyconanoparticles) was reported, the number of published articles has considerably increased. This article reviews progress in the development of nanoparticles functionalized with biological relevant oligosaccharides. The glyconanoparticles constitute a good bio-mimetic model of carbohydrate presentation at the cell surface, and maybe, excellent tools for Glycobiology, Biomedicine and Material Science investigations.