Sweet tailoring of glyco-modulatory extracellular matrix-inspired biomaterials to target neuroinflammation

Neuroinflammation is a highly reactive response that has not been addressed due to its complexity. Some of its molecular pathways, such as glycosylation, have been neglected in the past. Despite the intricacy and diversity of the glycome, there has been an increased interest in this field of study, which has resulted in fostering advances in glycobiology and glycochemistry. These advances have supported the emergence of a new class of glyco-engineered approaches, in which biomaterial-based strategies can address different disease glycophenotypes. Even though these are not extensively used yet, this review aims to provide a resourceful toolbox to build a wide variety of novel materials that can be designed to tackle the glyco-dysregulations seen in neuroinflammation. By assembling the already-well-described knowledge from glycobiology and chemistry, the best of both worlds can be harnessed toward the emergence of a new biomaterial science branch of study: polymeric-based glyco-modulatory materials.