Animal Glycosphingolipids As Membrane Attachment Sites For Bacteria

Human platelets express gangliosides with LKEactivity and ABH blood group activity

“…Not surprisingly, gangliosides have been shown to play a role in cell growth, 3 adhesion, 3–6 differentiation, 4,7,8 neoplasia, 5–6 and transmembrane signaling 3,4,8,9 . In infectious disease, gangliosides serve as specific receptors for several bacteria, viruses, and toxins 10–14 . Gangliosides are also potential targets for alloantibodies and autoantibodies 15–18 .…”

The Use of Glycosylation Inhibitors to Study Glycoconjugate Function

“…In cell-free extracts of aorta tissue, amphomycin blocked the formation of dolichyl-P-mannose from GDP-mannose, but it did not affect the transfer of mannose to lipid-linked oligosaccharides from either dolichyl-P-mannose or GDP-mannose (37,38). Thus, when microsomes were incubated with GDP-[ 14 C]mannose in the presence of enough amphomycin to completely inhibit the formation of dolichyl-P-[ 14 C]mannose, these extracts accumulated 14 C-Man 5 (GlcNAc) 2 -PPdolichol, but they were not able to elongate this lipid to larger sized oligosaccharide-lipids. On the other hand, when dolichyl-P-[ 14 C]mannose was used as the substrate with these extracts, mannose was transferred to oligosaccharide-lipids that contained six or more mannose residues.…”

“…These compounds are of considerable importance to medicine since certain gangliosides have been shown to be receptors for diphtheria and cholera toxins, while some cerebrosides are involved in bacterial attachment to animal cells. Since a number of current reviews have covered these compounds in detail, they will not be considered here (13,14). A more recently de scribed type of glycolipid is the glycosyl phosphatidylinositol (GPI) type, in which a glycan of mannose and GlcNAc (and sometimes other sugars such as galactose) is attached to the membrane phospholipid phosphati dylinositol.…”

Complex Carbohydrates in Drug Development

“…Nevertheless, adherence may protect bacteria from normal removal mechanisms such as fluid shear, increasing the probability of colonization. Experimental evidence suggests that bacterial lectins (carbohydrate-binding proteins) function in host adherence and the initiation of infection ( Karlsson. 1989;Ofek and Sharon, 1990).…”

“…Many different bacterial species and strains bind to lactosylceramide and/or gangliotetraosylceramide in uifro (Karlsson, 1989;Ofek and Sharon, 1990). Normal flora and pathogenic strains with various tissue tropisms bind, and the target glycolipids are expressed on many different tissues.…”