Glycomics for drug discovery: metabolic perturbation in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells induced by unnatural hexosamine mimics.

Inhibited: N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) derivatives with a fluorine atom at the C4 position (2-4) were synthesized, and their ability to inhibit cancer-cell growth was investigated. The administration of these 4F-GlcNAc derivatives to cells led to the unnatural sugar nucleotide 1. Furthermore, N-glycan profiles of cells were determined by using a glycoblotting-based enrichment analysis, which is suitable for high-throughput screenings for drug discovery.