PMID: 16642727Apr 29, 2006Paper

The emerging functionality of endogenous lectins: A primer to the concept and a case study on galectins including medical implications

Chang Gung Medical Journal
Hans-Joachim Gabius, Albert M Wu

Abstract

Biochemistry textbooks commonly make it appear that it is a foregone conclusion that the hardware of biological information storage and transfer is confined to nucleotides and amino acids, the letters of the genetic code. However, the remarkable talents of a third class of biomolecules are often overlooked. For example, one of them far surpasses the building blocks of nucleic acids and proteins in terms of theoretical coding capacity by oligomer formation. Although often exclusively assigned to duties in energy metabolism, carbohydrates as part of cellular glycoconjugates (glycoproteins, proteoglycans, glycolipids) have, in fact, other important tasks. Currently, they are increasingly gaining recognition as an operative high-density information coding system. An elaborate enzymatic machinery enables cells to be versatile enough to produce a glycan profile (glycome) that is as characteristic as a fingerprint. Moreover, swift modifications during dynamic processes, such as differentiation or malignant transformation, are readily possible. The translation of the information presented in oligosaccharide determinants to biological responses is carried out by lectins. Recognition of foreign glycosignatures in innate immunity, regulat...Continue Reading

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