Instead of the hemiacetal hydroxyl group, a hydrogen atom can be removed to form a substituent, for example the hydrogen from the C3 hydroxyl of a glucose molecule. Then the substituent is called D-glucopyranos-3-O-yl as it appears in the name of the drug Mifamurtide.
Recent detection of the Au in living organism was possible through the use of C-glycosyl pyrene, where its permeability through cell membrane and fluorescence properties were used to detect Au.