Triazole: the keystone in glycosylated molecular architectures constructed by a click reaction

The copper(I)-catalyzed modern version of the Huisgen-type azide-alkyne cycloaddition to give a 1,4-di-substituted 1,2,3-triazole unit is introduced as a powerful ligation method for glycoconjugation. Owing to its high chemoselectivity and tolerance of a variety of reaction conditions, this highly atom-economic and efficient coupling reaction is especially useful for the effective construction of complex glycosylated structures such as clusters, dendrimers, polymers, peptides, and macrocycles. In all cases the triazole ring plays a key role by locking into position the various parts of these molecular architectures. The examples reported and briefly discussed in this short review highlight the use of this reaction in carbohydrate chemistry and pave the way to further developments and applications.