Recent advances on the syntheses of oligosaccharides and the corresponding glycoconjugates towards development of vaccine candidates against invasive Neisseria meningitidis strains

Nabamita Basu; Mana Mohan Mukherjee; Rina Ghosh

doi:10.1016/j.carres.2025.109545

Recent advances on the syntheses of oligosaccharides and the corresponding glycoconjugates towards development of vaccine candidates against invasive Neisseria meningitidis strains

Carbohydr Res. 2025 May 29:555:109545. doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2025.109545. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Nabamita Basu¹, Mana Mohan Mukherjee², Rina Ghosh³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Nabagram Hiralal Paul College, Konnagar, Hoogly, West Bengal, 712246, India.
² Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 20852, USA.
³ Department of Chemistry, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700 032, India; Department of Chemistry, Rani Rashmoni Green University, Hooghly, Tarakeswar, 712410, West Bengal, India. Electronic address: ghoshrina@yahoo.com.

PMID: 40472439
DOI: 10.1016/j.carres.2025.109545

Abstract

NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS: (Men) is one of the reasons of meningitis and sepsis worldwide. Mainly affected groups are children below five years and adolescents. Out of thirteen different Men-serogroups, disease causing invasive ones are the following six groups: A, B, C, W, X and Y. Epidemics and outbreaks by Men-strains are also reported to occur in several countries around the world. Based on the capsular polysaccharides of Men-strains (A, C, W and Y) conjugated with carrier proteins [Diphtheria toxoid (DT), CRM197 (a non-toxic mutant of DT) or Tetanus toxoid (TT)], several mono- and multi-valent vaccines were developed and licensed, which are still being used. Vaccines in the market against serogroup B are derived from MenB-proteins. Apart from these, several synthetic or semi-synthetic glycoconjugate-vaccine candidates against the disease-causing Men-serogroups are still under development or under pre-clinical or clinical trials. This minireview will encompass an overview mainly of the chemical syntheses of such semi-synthetic or synthetic glycoconjugates as Men-vaccine candidates.

Keywords: Glycoconjugate; Neisseria meningitidis; Semi-synthetic; Synthesis; Vaccine.