Mannose/glucose-functionalized dendrimers to investigate the predictable tunability of multivalent interactions

G4-, G5-, and G6-PAMAM dendrimers were functionalized with mixtures of mannose and glucose in varying ratios, and the relative affinities of these compounds for Concanavalin A (Con A) were evaluated using the hemagglutination assay. As the ratio of mannose to glucose increases, the relative activity in the hemagglutination assay (on a per sugar basis) increases linearly. Methyl mannose binds to Con A with an affinity 4-fold higher than that of methyl glucose; multivalency amplifies this trend. The mannose/glucose-functionalized dendrimer results reported here suggest that the affinity of multivalent associations can be attenuated in predictable, reliable ways based on monovalent affinities of the ligands.