Recent Trends in Carbohydrate Chemistry Volume 2: Chapter 8 - Glycoconjugate vaccines, production and characterization

Licensed carbohydrate-based vaccines are obtained by conjugation of native or sized polysaccharides to an appropriate carrier protein. They are part of routine vaccinations in many countries. Advances in the organic and chemo-enzymatic synthesis of carbohydrate antigens combined with novel technologies (e.g., glycoengineering), new conjugation approaches (site-selective protein glycoconjugation), alternative carrier systems and development in glycan structure analysis methods offer new perspectives in the development of carbohydrate-protein conjugate vaccines. This review presents a status of chemistries and analytical methods used in the licensed vaccines as the development of new technologies and new tools that could be used to produce and characterize the future glycoconjugates vaccines.