Patent Grants Broad Protection To Enzymatic Carbohydrate Synthesis

Abstract

A broad patent that protects the enzymatic synthesis of carbohydrates is generating a mixture of admiration, debate, and consternation among carbohydrate researchers. US patent 5,180,674, issued last month, provides legal protection for any commercial synthesis of a carbohydrate using three or more glycosyltransferases (sugarlinking enzymes). The patent could be of enormous commercial importance, owing to the widespread efforts currently being expended on the development of carbohydrate-based drugs--a field called glycotechnology. Carbohydrate compounds--including oligosaccharides, oligosaccharides conjugated with proteins (glycoproteins), and oligosaccharide-lipid conjugates (glycolipids)--are subjects of intense study because of the key roles they play as cell-signaling agents, transport molecules, and molecular recognition elements. However, synthesizing such carbohydrates is notoriously difficult and expensive. The enzyme isolation technique developed by carbohydrate biochemist Stephen Roth of Neose Pharmaceuticals, Horsham, Pa., could change that--and perhaps revolutionize carbohydrate synthesis in the process. Roth is so confident of the technology that he left academia and founded Neose in 1990 to commercialize it. The company is willing to grant sublicenses for oligosaccharide synthesis or to do syntheses on behalf of clients. The author is currently in the process of making kilogram amounts of specific oligosaccharides, says Roth, adding that the company's long-term goal is to be able tomore » synthesize hundred-kilogram quantities.« less