Galectin-8 enhances adhesion of multiple myeloma cells to vascular endothelium and is an adverse prognostic factor
Multiple myeloma is characterized by abnormal infiltration of malignant plasma cells into bone marrow. Testing the hypothesis that bivalent galectin-8 (Gal-8) may influence homing of myeloma cells to vascular endothelium as a key prerequisite for infiltration, we analyzed the two Gal-8 splice variants (Gal-8S, Gal-8L). They differ in the length of their linker peptide connecting the two lectin domains. Both Gal-8 isoforms bind to cells of the myeloma lines Gal-8+ MOLP-8 and Gal-8– LP-1 in a glycan-inhibitable manner. Both Gal-8 isoforms led to enhanced adhesion of myeloma cells to vascular endothelium under dynamic s...
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Friedel, M., Andre, S., Goldschmidt, H., Gabius, H.-J., Schwartz-Albiez, R. Tags: Cancer Biology Source Type: research
Estimating glycosaminoglycan-protein interaction affinity: water dominates the specific antithrombin-heparin interaction
Glycosaminoglycan (GAG)–protein interactions modulate many important biological processes. Structure–function studies on GAGs may reveal probes and drugs, but their structural complexity and highly acidic nature confound such work. Productivity will increase if we are able to identify tight-binding oligosaccharides in silico. An extension of the CHARMM force field is presented to enable modeling of polysaccharides containing sulfamate functionality, and is used to develop a reliable alchemical free-energy perturbation protocol that estimates changes in affinity for the prototypical heparin–antithromb...
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Sarkar, A., Yu, W., Desai, U. R., MacKerell, A. D., Mosier, P. D. Tags: Communication Source Type: research
Carbohydrates as T-cell antigens with implications in health and disease
Glycosylation is arguably the most ubiquitous post-translational modification on proteins in microbial and mammalian cells. During the past few years, there has been intensive research demonstrating that carbohydrates, either in pure forms or in conjunction with proteins or lipids, evoke and modulate adaptive immune responses. We now know that carbohydrates can be directly recognized by T cells or participate in T-cell stimulation as components of T-cell epitopes. T-cell recognition of carbohydrate antigens takes place via their presentation by major histocompatibility complex pathways on antigen-presenting cells. In this ...
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Sun, L., Middleton, D. R., Wantuch, P. L., Ozdilek, A., Avci, F. Y. Tags: Review Source Type: research
Gly-Spec: a webtool for predicting glycan specificity by integrating glycan array screening data and 3D structure
(Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Grant, O. C., Xue, X., Ra, D., Khatamian, A., Foley, B. L., Woods, R. J. Tags: Letter to the Glyco-Forum Source Type: research
Meeting and Course Announcements
(Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Glyco-Forum Section Source Type: research
Subscription Page
(Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Cover/Standing Material Source Type: research
Editorial Board
(Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Cover/Standing Material Source Type: research
Contents Page
(Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - October 18, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Cover/Standing Material Source Type: research
Chemical characterization and immunomodulatory properties of polysaccharides isolated from probiotic Lactobacillus casei LOCK 0919
The Lactobacillus casei strain, LOCK 0919, is intended for the dietary management of food allergies and atopic dermatitis (LATOPIC® BIOMED). The use of a probiotic to modulate immune responses is an interesting strategy for solving imbalance problems of gut microflora that may lead to various disorders. However, the exact bacterial signaling mechanisms underlying such modulations are still far from being understood. Here, we investigated variations in the chemical compositions and immunomodulatory properties of the polysaccharides (PS), L919/A and L919/B, which are produced by L. casei LOCK 0919. By virtue of their che...
Source: Glycobiology - September 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Gorska, S., Hermanova, P., Ciekot, J., Schwarzer, M., Srutkova, D., Brzozowska, E., Kozakova, H., Gamian, A. Tags: Microbial Biology Source Type: research
Dendritic cell-specific Mgat2 knockout mice show antigen presentation defects but reveal an unexpected CD11c expression pattern
This study shows that Mgat2 deficient DCs from DC-cKO mice show ablation of PSA presentation and downstream T cell activation in vitro. However, the CD11c promoter was unexpectedly active and triggered Mgat2 deletion within multiple hematopoietic lineages, showed remarkably poor penetrance within native DC populations, and produced almost undetectable levels of green fluorescent protein signal. These findings show that the CD11c promoter is not DC-specific, and extreme care should be taken in the interpretation of data using any mouse created using the CD11c-CRE model. (Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - September 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Jones, M. B., Ryan, S. O., Johnson, J. L., Cobb, B. A. Tags: Immunology Source Type: research
Effects of domain composition on catalytic activity of human UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glucosyltransferases
In this study, we aimed to clarify the contribution of the noncatalytic domains by comparing activities of truncated forms of recombinant HUGT1/HUGT2 and HUGT1/HUGT2 chimeras with full-length enzymes. Our results obtained by using synthetic substrate indicate that the C-terminal catalytic regions of HUGTs are functional as UGGT. While the activity of HUGT1, but not that of HUGT2, was enhanced by the presence of N-terminal domains, activities of catalytic domains are similar between two homologs. (Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - September 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Takeda, Y., Seko, A., Fujikawa, K., Izumi, M., Kajihara, Y., Ito, Y. Tags: Glycan Recognition Source Type: research
Expression analysis of 0-series gangliosides in human cancer cell lines with monoclonal antibodies generated using knockout mice of ganglioside synthase genes
Some gangliosides, sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids, have been considered as tumor-associated antigens. GD1α or a GD1α synthase gene ST6GalNAc5 was reported to be involved in the metastasis of murine lymphomas or human breast cancers, respectively. But expression patterns of 0-series gangliosides GD1α and its precursor GM1b in human cancers have not yet been investigated mainly due to lack of specific antibodies. We established specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) reactive with GD1α or GM1b using gangliosides from brain tissues of GM3 synthase (St3gal5)-deficient mice as immunogens. We use...
Source: Glycobiology - September 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Bhuiyan, R. H., Kondo, Y., Yamaguchi, T., Tokuda, N., Ohkawa, Y., Hashimoto, N., Ohmi, Y., Yamauchi, Y., Furukawa, K., Okajima, T., Furukawa, K. Tags: Cancer Biology Source Type: research
The cell-wall active mannuronan C5-epimerases in the model brown alga Ectocarpus: From gene context to recombinant protein
We report here the first heterologous production of a ManC5-E of brown algal origin that is successfully refolded in an active form. The activity was measured by 1H NMR and by an indirect enzymatic assay using a known bacterial alginate lyase. The transcript expression as a function of the developmental program of the brown alga Ectocarpus, together with the bioinformatic analyses of the corresponding gene context of this multigenic family, is also presented. (Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - September 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Fischl, R., Bertelsen, K., Gaillard, F., Coelho, S., Michel, G., Klinger, M., Boyen, C., Czjzek, M., Herve, C. Tags: Plant Biology Source Type: research
A homology model of Xyloglucan Xylosyltransferase 2 reveals critical amino acids involved in substrate binding
In dicotyledonous plants, xyloglucan (XyG) is the most abundant hemicellulose of the primary cell wall. The enzymes involved in XyG biosynthesis have been identified through reverse-genetics and activity was characterized by heterologous expression. Currently, there is no information on the atomic structures or amino acids involved in activity or substrate binding of any of the Golgi-localized XyG biosynthetic enzymes. A homology model of the xyloglucan xylosyltransferase 2 (XXT2) catalytic domain was built on the basis of the crystal structure of A64Rp. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the homology m...
Source: Glycobiology - September 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Culbertson, A. T., Tietze, A. A., Tietze, D., Chou, Y.-H., Smith, A. L., Young, Z. T., Zabotina, O. A. Tags: Plant Biology Source Type: research
Cell wall integrity signaling in plants: "To grow or not to grow that's the question"
Plants, like yeast, have the ability to monitor alterations in the cell wall architecture that occur during normal growth or in changing environments and to trigger compensatory changes in the cell wall. We discuss how recent advances in our understanding of the cell wall architecture provide new insights into the role of cell wall integrity sensing in growth control. Next we review the properties of membrane receptor-like kinases that have roles in pH control, mechano-sensing and reactive oxygen species accumulation in growing cells and which may be the plant equivalents of the yeast cell wall integrity (CWI) sensors. Fin...
Source: Glycobiology - September 30, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Voxeur, A., Höfte, H. Tags: Review Source Type: research
