Biological significance of carbohydrate active enzymes and searching their inhibitors for therapeutic applications

Abstract

Glycans are the most abundant and diverse group of biomolecules with a crucial role in all the biological processes. Their structural and functional diversity is not genetically encoded, but depends on Carbohydrate Active Enzymes (CAZymes) which carry out all catalytic activities in terms of synthesis, modification, and degradation. CAZymes comprise large families of enzymes with specific functions and are widely used for various commercial applications ranging from biofuel production to textile and food industries with impact on biorefineries. To understand the structure and functional mechanism of these CAZymes for their modification for industrial use, together with knowledge of therapeutic aspects of their dysfunction associated with various diseases, CAZyme inhibitors can be used as a valuable tool. In search for new inhibitors, the screening of various secondary metabolites using high-throughput techniques and rational design techniques have been explored. The inhibitors can thus help tune CAZymes and are emerging as a potential research interest.

Keywords: CAZyme inhibitors; CAZymes; Glycobiology; High-throughput searching; Sugar mimetics; Therapeutic.