As described earlier, one crucial question in glycoconjugate chemistry is whether or not the sugar-conjugated molecule is actually transported by the targeted sugar transporters. To address this issue, we carried out a series of experiments to investigate the details of the mechanism by which 1-3 are taken up by cells. Glc-Pts 1–3 are very hydrophilic (log P ~ −2) rendering cellular internalization via passive diffusion through the cellular lipid membrane highly unlikely. Furthermore, the lack of correlation between the log P values and cellular uptake is consistent with a protein-mediated transport mechanism (Figure S10a). The ovarian cancer cell line A2780 was chosen to evaluate the cellular uptake mechanism of the Glc-Pts because of its high level of GLUT1 expression,[17] confirmed by immunoblotting analyses (Figure S10b). Cellular uptake was first monitored in the absence and presence of an exofacial GLUT1 inhibitor 4,6-O-ethylidene-α-D-glucose (EDG),[18] and the results are presented in Figures 2a and S14c. A 50% reduction in cellular uptake of 1 was measured in the presence of 100 mM EDG. Under similar conditions, the reduction in the cellular uptake of 2 and 3 was 38% and 30%, respectively. The cellular uptake of cisplatin did not change significantly in the presence of the inhibitor. Because cisplatin can be taken up via passive diffusion, this result matches well with our expectations. The inhibitor did, however, cause a 24% decrease in the cellular uptake of the aglycone 4. Because energy-dependent organic cation transporters (OCTs) contribute, at least in part, to the cellular uptake of 4 (Figure 2d, vide infra), we propose that the differential uptake induced by the presence of EDG most likely arises from the energy-depleted conditions produced by glucose transport inhibition. The extent of cellular uptake inhibition of the Glc-Pts in the presence of EDG is in the order 1>2>3 and this trend tracks with the cellular uptake of these compounds (Figure S5), providing further support for the proposal that the GLUT1 translocation efficiencies for C6-glucose conjugates decrease with increasing linker length. Cumulatively, these results suggest that the cellular uptake of 1 is not only superior to, but is also more glucose-transporter-specific than, that of either 2 or 3. As a consequence, only 1 was used in the subsequent cellular uptake experiments.