Recent progress of functional glycoconjugated metal complexes

Synthesis, characterizations and stereochemistry of the transition metal complexes containing glycosylamines derived from sugar molecules and polyamines have been investigated. During this study, the intelligent sugar complexes having ion recognition ability, novel sugar transformation reactions promoted by a cooperative effect of calcium ion and monoamines have been discovered. The biological activity of these metal complexes was also investigated. Antifungal nickel(II) complexes derived from amino sugars, and unprecedented sugar-dependent in vivo antitumor activity of carbohydrate-pendant cis-platinum(II) complexes are described in this article. These results suggested that the stereostructure and bioactivity of the sugar-metal complexes can be modified by varying amines and metal ions, and sugar molecules used.