Exploring the Potential of Intervening Glycoconjugate in Traditional Chinese Medicine against Respiratory Viral Infections Based on Glycosylation Patterns

The high pathogenicity and mortality of respiratory viral infections pose a significant clinical burden. Due to the high degree of variability of viral proteins, some current targeted drugs are highly susceptible to drug resistance, and there is an urgent need for the development of effective therapeutic strategies. Glycoconjugates are widely distributed in hosts and viruses, and participate in host-virus interactions, viral replication, innate and adaptive immunity, etc. Aberrant glycosylation is involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases, and anti-respiratory viral strategies targeting glycosylation have the advantages of high specificity, low drug resistance, and broad-spectrum. In recent years, traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have shown unique potential in intervening in glycosylation-related antiviral fields due to their multi-target regulatory properties. The aim of this paper is to focus on the biological functions of glycosylation modifications, the research progress of virus infection and potential TCM monomers targeting glycosylation, which not only reveals the scientific connotation of TCM regulation of glycosylation, but also provides a natural molecular library for the development of novel antiviral strategies based on glycosylation intervention. In the future, it is necessary to further combine the techniques of glycomics and structural biology to elucidate the precise mechanism of spatial and temporal dynamics of TCM monomers in regulating glycosylation, and to promote the modernization of TCM.