Structure-activity relationship of antithrombotic polysaccharide derivatives

Heparin has been the drug of choice in clinical pre-surgical and post-surgical prophylaxis of thrombotic events. However, because of its side-effects, such as bleeding and other disadvantages (i.e. chemical inhomogeneity and variability of its physiological activities), alternatives to heparin are an important field of research. A necessary procedure in the development of new drugs is the evaluation of structure-activity relationships. Genuine neutral polysaccharides were chemically modified and examined for their anticoagulant activities, The linear beta-1,3-glucan curdlan, an easily available bacterial polysaccharide, served as the basic polymer. It could be established that the anticoagulant activity was dependent on the degree of sulfation and the molecular weight. For heparin, the sulfation pattern, i.e, the actual location of the sulfate groups along the heparin chain, was of importance in addition to the degree of sulfation. Therefore, we investigated whether there was also a relationship between the substitution pattern of the curdlan sulfates and their anticoagulant activity. For determination of the substitution pattern of the sulfated polysaccharides, a method was developed that is based on synthesis of the partially alkylated alditol acetates of the polymer and examination of these derivatives using combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In addition to the analytical data, the structure-activity relationship of anticoagulative curdlan sulfates is presented.