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Trabajo presentado a la XXXIV Reunion Bienal de la Real Sociedad Española de Química: "Química para un futuro común", celebrada en Santander (España) del 15 al 18 de septiembre de 2013., Un sensor es un dispositivo capaz de recibir información de una magnitud física o química y transformarla en otra magnitud, normalmente eléctrica, que se puede cuantificar y manipular. Estas magnitudes físicas o químicas pueden ser, entre otras la temperatura, intensidad lumínica, aceleración, presión, o la humedad. En un sensor químico, el analito se coordina al sistema sensor de forma no covalente, lo que origina una señal. Uno de los requisitos de los sensores químicos es que este proceso tiene que ocurrir de forma reversible. Los sensores ópticos son un tipo de sensores químicos en los que la señal se produce por un cambio en las propiedades ópticas como por ejemplo la absorción o la fluorescencia. Existen dos tipos, aquellos en las que la propiedad óptica se activa cuando se une el analito al sistema sensor o aquellos en los que la propiedad óptica se desactiva. Cuando los sistemas sensores son luminiscentes, el cambio puede darse bien en la absorción, bien en la fluorescencia o bien en la fosforescencia y cualquiera de estos cambios puede dar lugar al desarrollo de un sensor. En este trabajo se presentan compuestos organometálicos de oro(I), oro(III) y compuestos de coordinación de lantánidos, todos ellos luminiscentes. Estos compuestos se han ensayado como sistemas sensores en la detección de moléculas biológicas, como la heparina, y también se han ensayado como sistemas sensores de explosivos, empleando como modelo el que se utiliza habitualmente, el nitrobenceno. Los complejos de lantánidos han mostrado su gran eficacia en la detección y cuantificación de heparina, tanto si nos fijamos en la absorción, como en la fluorescencia y en la fosforescencia. Son capaces de distinguir entre heparinas de distintos pesos moleculares, dato muy importante ya que las heparinas más activas son las de bajo peso molecular. Resultan también ser eficaces para la detección de nitrobenceno permitiendo, incluso, la cuantificación del mismo, aunque al hablar de explosivos, lo más importante es la detección.

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are complex polysaccharides composed of hexosamine-containing disaccharide repeating units. The three most studied classes of GAGs, heparin/heparan sulfate, hyaluronan and chondroitin/dermatan sulfate, are essential macromolecules. GAGs isolated from animal and microbial sources have been utilized therapeutically, but naturally occurring GAGs are extremely heterogeneous limiting further development of these agents. These molecules pose difficult targets to construct by classical organic syntheses due to the long chain lengths and complex patterns of modification by sulfation and epimerization. Chemoenzymatic synthesis, a process that employs exquisite enzyme catalysts and various defined precursors (e.g. uridine 5′-diphosphosphate-sugar donors, sulfate donors, acceptors and oxazoline precursors), promises to deliver homogeneous GAGs. This review covers both theoretical and practical issues of GAG oligosaccharide and polysaccharide preparation as single molecular entities and in library formats. Even at this early stage of technology development, nearly monodisperse GAGs can be made with either natural or artificial structures.

The solution conformation of the homogeneous, heparin-derived tetrasaccharide delta UA2S(1-->4)-alpha-D-GlcNpS6S(1-->4)-alpha-L-IdoAp2S (1-->4)-alpha-D-GlcNpS6S (residues A, B, C and D respectively, where IdoA is iduronic acid) has been investigated by using 1H- and 13C-NMR. Ring conformations have been defined by J-coupling constants and inter-proton nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs), and the orientation of one ring with respect to the other has been defined by inter-ring NOEs. NOE-based conformational modelling has been done by using the iterative relaxation matrix approach (IRMA), restrained molecular dynamics simulations and energy minimization to refine structures and to distinguish between minor structural differences and equilibria between various ring forms. Both glucosamine residues B and D are in the 4C1 chair conformation. The 6-O-sulphate group is oriented in the gauche-trans configuration in the D ring, whereas in the B ring the gauche-gauche rotomer predominates. Uronate (A) and iduronate (C) residues are mostly represented by 1H2 and 2S0 twisted boat forms, respectively, with small deviations in expected coupling constants and NOEs suggesting minor contributions from other A and C ring conformations.

Heparin is a polysaccharide-based natural product that is used clinically as an anticoagulant drug. Heparan sulfate 3-O-sulfotransferase (3-OST) is an enzyme that transfers a sulfo group to the 3-OH position of a glucosamine unit. 3-OST is present in multiple isoforms, and the polysaccharides modified by these different isoforms perform distinct biological functions. 3-OST isoform 1 (3-OST-1) is the key enzyme for the biosynthesis of anticoagulant heparin. Here, we report the crystal structure of the ternary complex of 3-OST-1, 3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphate, and a heptasaccharide substrate. Comparisons to previously determined structures of 3-OST-3 reveal unique binding modes used by the different isoforms of 3-OST for distinguishing the fine structures of saccharide substrates. Our data demonstrate that the saccharide substrates display distinct conformations when interacting with the different 3-OST isoforms. Site-directed mutagenesis data suggest that several key amino residues, including Lys259, Thr256, and Trp283 in 3-OST-3 and Arg268 in 3-OST-1, play important roles in substrate binding and specificity between isoforms. These results deepen our understanding of the biosynthetic mechanism of heparan sulfate and provide structural information for engineering enzymes for an enhanced biosynthetic approach to heparin production.

A heparan sulphate proteoglycan was purified from adult bovine brain tissues and its structure was characterized. The major heparan sulphate proteoglycan from whole bovine brain had a molecular mass of >200 kDa on denaturing SDS/PAGE and a core protein size of 66 kDa following the removal of glycosaminoglycan chains. Fractionation on DEAE-Sephacel showed that this proteoglycan consisted of three major forms having high, intermediate and low overall charge. All core proteins were identical in size and reacted with heparan sulphate proteoglycan-stub antibody and an antibody made to a synthetic peptide based on rat glypican. The three forms of proteoglycans had identical peptide maps and their amino acid compositional analysis did not match any of the known glypicans. The internal sequence of a major peptide showed only 37.5% sequence similarity with human glypican 5. The glycosaminoglycan chain sizes of the three forms of this proteoglycan, determined after beta-elimination by PAGE, were identical. The disaccharide compositional analysis on the heparan sulphate chains from the three forms of the proteoglycan, determined by treatment with a mixture of heparin lyases followed by high-resolution capillary electrophoresis, showed that they differed primarily by degree of sulphation. The most highly sulphated proteoglycan isolated had a disaccharide composition similar to heparan sulphate glycosaminoglycans found in brain tissue. Based on their sensitivity to low pH nitrous acid treatment, the N-sulphate groups in these proteoglycans were found to be primarily in the smaller glycosaminoglycan chains. The heparan sulphate proteoglycans were also heavily glycosylated with O-linked glycans and no glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor could be detected.