Recent advances in carbohydrate-based vaccines.

Vaccinations provide an efficient and cost-effective way to combat devastating human diseases. Besides pathogenic protein markers, cell surface carbohydrates from biological sources are widely used as vaccines. Recently, synthetic immunogenic carbohydrate-protein conjugates have been advanced to vaccine candidates. Progress in the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharides and conjugation methods stimulated the development of novel carbohydrate-based vaccine candidates.