Summary Co-evolution of beneficial microorganisms with the mammalian intestine fundamentally shapes mammalian physiology. Herein we report that the intestinal microbe Bacteroides fragilis modifies the homeostasis of host invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells by supplementing the host’s endogenous lipid antigen milieu with unique inhibitory sphingolipids. The process occurs early in life and effectively impedes iNKT cell proliferation during neonatal development. Consequently, total colonic iNKT cell numbers are restricted into adulthood and hosts are protected against experimental iNKT cell–mediated, oxazolone-induced colitis. In studies with neonatal mice lacking access to bacterial sphingolipids, we found that treatment with B. fragilis glycosphingolipids—exemplified by an isolated peak (M.W.=717.6) called GSL-Bf717—reduces colonic iNKT cell numbers and confers protection against oxazolone-induced colitis in adulthood. Our results suggest that the distinctive inhibitory capacity of GSL-Bf717 and similar molecules may prove useful in the treatment of autoimmune and allergic disorders in which iNKT cell activation is destructive.

Although glycoconjugate vaccines have provided enormous health benefits globally, they have been less successful in significant high-risk populations. Exploring novel approaches to the enhancement of glycoconjugate effectiveness, we investigated molecular and cellular mechanisms governing the immune response to a prototypical glycoconjugate vaccine. In antigen-presenting cells, a carbohydrate epitope is generated upon endolysosomal processing of group B streptococcal type III polysaccharide coupled to a carrier protein. In conjunction with a carrier protein-derived peptide, this carbohydrate epitope binds to major histocompatibility class II (MHCII) and stimulates carbohydrate-specific CD4+ T-cell clones to produce interleukins 2 and 4—cytokines essential for providing T-cell help to antibody-producing B cells. An archetypical glycoconjugate vaccine constructed to maximize the presentation of carbohydrate epitopes recognized by T cells is 50–100 times more potent and significantly more protective in an animal model of infection than is a currently used vaccine construct.

We found that Acinetobacter baumannii contains a pgaABCD locus that encodes proteins that synthesize cell-associated poly-␤-(1-6)-N-acetylglucosamine (PNAG). Both a mutant with an in-frame deletion of the pga locus (S1⌬pga) and a transcomplemented strain (S1⌬pga-c) of A. baumannii were constructed, and the PNAG production by these strains was compared using an immunoblot assay. Deleting the pga locus resulted in an A. baumannii strain without PNAG, and transcomplementation of the S1⌬pga strain with the pgaABCD genes fully restored the wild-type PNAG phenotype. Heterologous expression of the A. baumannii pga locus in Escherichia coli led to synthesis of significant amounts of PNAG, while no polysaccharide was detected in E. coli cells harboring an empty vector. Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of the extracellular polysaccharide material isolated from A. baumannii confirmed that it was PNAG, but notably only 60% of the glucosamine amino groups were acetylated. PCR analysis indicated that all 30 clinical A. baumannii isolates examined had the pga genes, and immunoblot assays indicated that 14 of the 30 strains strongly produced PNAG, 14 of the strains moderately to weakly produced PNAG, and 2 strains appeared to not produce PNAG. Deletion of the pga locus led to loss of the strong biofilm phenotype, which was restored by complementation. Confocal laser scanning microscopy studies combined with COMSTAT analysis demonstrated that the biovolume, mean thickness, and maximum thickness of 16-h and 48-h-old biofilms formed by wild-type and pga-complemented A. baumannii strains were significantly greater than the biovolume, mean thickness, and maximum thickness of 16-h and 48-h-old biofilms formed by the S1⌬pga mutant strain. Biofilm-dependent production of PNAG could be an important virulence factor for this emerging pathogen that has few known virulence factors.

The capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) of most pathogenic bacteria are T cell-independent antigens whose conjugation to carrier proteins evokes a carbohydrate-specific response eliciting T cell help. However, certain bacterial CPSs, known as zwitterionic polysaccharides (ZPSs), activate the adaptive immune system through processing by antigen-presenting cells and presentation by the major histocompatibility complex class II pathway to CD4(+) T cells. This discovery was the first mechanistic insight into how carbohydrates-a class of biological molecules previously thought to be T cell independent-can in fact activate T cells. Through their ability to activate CD4(+) T cells, ZPSs direct the cellular and physical maturation of the developing immune system. In this review, we explore the still-enigmatic relations between CPSs and the adaptive immune machinery at the cellular and molecular levels, and we discuss how new insights into the biological impact of ZPSs expand our concepts of the role of carbohydrates in microbial interactions with the adaptive immune system.

Heparan sulfate carries a wide range of biological activities, regulating blood coagulation, cell differentiation, and inflammatory responses. The sulfation patterns of the polysaccharide are essential for the biological activities. In this study, we report an enzymatic method for the sulfation of multimilligram amounts of heparan sulfate with specific functions using immobilized sulfotransferases combined with a 3-phosphoadenosine 5-phosphosulfate regeneration system. By selecting appropriate enzymatic modification steps, an inactive precursor has been converted to the heparan sulfate having three distinct biological activities, associated with binding to antithrombin, fibroblast growth factor-2, and herpes simplex virus envelope glycoprotein D. Because the recombinant sulfotransferases are expressed in bacteria, and the method uses a low cost sulfo donor, it can be readily utilized to synthesize large quantities of anticoagulant heparin drug or other biologically active heparan sulfates. Heparan sulfate (HS)3 is a ubiquitous component of the cell surface and extracellular matrix. It regulates a wide range of physiologic and pathophysiologic functions, including embryonic development and blood coagulation and can facilitate viral infection (1, 2). HS exerts its biological effects by interacting with the specific proteins involved in a given process (3). HS is a highly charged polysaccharide consisting of 1 3 4-linked glucosamine and glucuronic/iduronic acid units that contain both N-and O-sulfo groups. Unique saccharide sequences within HS determine the specificity of the binding of HS to its target proteins (4). Heparin, a specialized form of HS, is a commonly used anticoagulant drug. Thus, new methods for the synthesis of heparin and HS attract considerable interest for those developing anticoagulant drugs having improved pharmacological effects.Chemical synthesis has been the major route to obtain structurally defined heparin and HS oligosaccharides (5). The most important example involves the structure antithrombin-binding pentasaccharide. A synthetic pentasaccharide, based on this structure, has been marketed in the United States under the trade name Arixtra. Arixtra is a specific factor Xa inhibitor that is used clinically to prevent venous thromboembolic incidents during surgery. Unfortunately, the total synthesis of heparin and HS oligosaccharides, larger than pentasaccharides, is extremely difficult. HS analogues with 14 saccharide units inhibit the activity of thrombin, but these synthetic analogues are simplified hybrid molecules of HS oligosaccharides and highly sulfated glucose units (6, 7) and are not the naturally occurring structures. Although our laboratory and others continue to pursue the synthesis of heparin and HS oligosaccharides (8), it has become clear that chemical synthesis alone is currently incapable of generating most larger oligosaccharide structures. The application of HS biosynthetic enzymes for generating large heparin and HS oligosaccharides with desired biological activities o...

Mammalian cells sustain low ratios of intracellular to extracellular sodium and chloride, and high ratios of potassium. [1] These asymmetric ionic gradients are critical to cell functions, driving essential cellular processes including the transport of amino acids, maintenance of cellular pH, and control of cell volume. [2] Lowering the extracellular concentrations of sodium and chloride, for instance by immersing cells in a hypotonic solution, causes cytoskeleton destruction, cell cycle arrest, and cell lysis. [3] Elevating intracellular osmolarity may induce similar effects, but it is difficult to achieve because ion transport is tightly regulated by live cells.We hypothesize that sodium chloride nanoparticles (SCNPs) can be exploited as a Trojan-horse strategy to deliver ions Many inorganic nanoparticles are prepared and their behaviors in living systems are investigated. Yet, common electrolytes such as NaCl are left out of this campaign. The underlying assumption is that electrolyte nanoparticles will quickly dissolve in water and behave similarly as their constituent salts. Herein, this preconception is challenged. The study shows that NaCl nanoparticles (SCNPs) but not salts are highly toxic to cancer cells. This is because SCNPs enter cells through endocytosis, bypassing cell regulations on ion transport. When dissolved inside cancer cells, SCNPs cause a surge of osmolarity and rapid cell lysis. Interestingly, normal cells are much more resistant to the treatment due to their relatively low sodium levels. Unlike conventional chemotherapeutics, SCNPs cause immunogenic cell death or ICD. In vivo studies show that SCNPs not only kill cancer cells, but also boost an anticancer immunity. The discovery opens up a new perspective on nanoparticle-based therapeutics.

Direct UV matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometric analysis of uncomplexed, underivatized, highly sulfated oligosaccharides has been carried out using ionic liquids as matrices. Under conventionally used MALDI time-of-flight experimental conditions, uncomplexed polysulfated oligosaccharides do not produce any signal. We report that 1-methylimidazolium alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate and butylammonium 2,5-dihydroxybenzoate ionic liquid matrices allow the detection of picomole amounts of the sodium salts of a disaccharide, sucrose octasulfate, and an octasulfated pentasaccharide, Arixtra. The experimental results indicate that both analytes undergo some degree of thermal fragmentation with a mass loss corresponding to cleavage of O-SO3Na bonds in the matrix upon laser irradiation, reflecting lability of sulfo groups.

After uptake by the endosome of an antigen-presenting cell (APC), exogenous proteins are known to be degraded into peptides by protease digestion. Here, we report the mechanism by which pure carbohydrates can be depolymerized within APC endosomes/lysosomes by nitric oxide (NO)-derived reactive nitrogen species (RNSs) and/or superoxide-derived reactive oxygen species (ROSs). Earlier studies showed that depolymerization of polysaccharide A (PSA) from Bacteroides fragilis in the endosome depends on the APC's having an intact inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene; the chemical mechanism underlying depolymerization of a carbohydrate within the endosome/lysosome is described here. Examining the ability of the major RNSs to degrade PSA, we determined that deamination is the predominant mechanism for PSA processing in APCs and is a required step in PSA presentation to antigen processing ͉ MHC class II ͉ reactive nitrogen species