A new class of sulfurated, semi-rigid, radial and low-valent glycosylated asterisk ligands with potential dual function as ligand and probe has some of the highest inhibition potencies of Con A-induced hemagglutination, by using a cross-linking mechanism of Con A which amplifies the enhancement to near nanomolar concentrations with the alpha-d-mannose asterisk.

We report the synthesis of squaraine dyes under mild conditions by carbodiimide activation of squaric acid or semi-squaraine dyes. Despite low yields when the reaction was carried out in solution, these conditions were successfully applied to efficient peptide labelling on resin and nucleic acid sensing in solution.