Silver‐ and gold‐labeled colloidal and crosslinked glycopolymers based on glycyl glycosynthons and maleic anhydride copolymers for lectin binding

A simple, convenient, and inexpensive technique for preparing lectin‐specific nanogold‐ and silver‐labeled colloidal and crosslinked neoglycoconjugates, based on maleic anhydride copolymers, was developed. Water‐soluble nanogold‐ and silver‐labeled glyconanoparticles were obtained in two steps: (1) introduction of free N‐acetyl‐D‐glucosamine or glycyl‐spacered glycosynthons—β‐N‐glycyl‐N‐acetyl‐D‐glucosamine or β‐N‐glycyl‐lactose—into poly(ethylene‐alt‐maleic anhydride) or poly(N‐vinylpyrrolidone‐alt‐maleic anhydride) and (2) labeling in situ the thus‐obtained glycopolymers with gold or silver nanoparticles. Lectin sorbents were synthesized from glycyl‐spacered glycosynthons and spherical, granulated, crosslinked maleic anhydride copolymers in an aqueous system without any condensing agents. Thus, maleic anhydride copolymer was used solely, without any preliminary modification of the polymer, as a matrix for crosslinking, for specific ligand binding, and as metal nanoparticles as a stabilizing cover. The resulting colloidal gold or silver glyconanoparticles were used as lectin sensors (in a dot‐blot analysis of lectins) and as crosslinked neoglycoconjugates for lectin sorption studies. The corresponding gold‐ or silver‐labeled water‐soluble glyconanoparticles and crosslinked neoglycoconjugates manifested high activity and specificity in all tests with a series of β‐D‐GlcNAc‐specific and β‐D‐Gal‐specific lectins. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44718.