Applications of Plant Lectins in Biotechnology and Therapeutics

Abstract

Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins broadly used in various therapeutic and biomedical applications. The variable affinity of lectins towards variety of carbohydrates has raised attention for the biologist to explore functional aspects of lectins. Lectins express specificity to simple carbohydrates for example mannose, lactose, sialic acid, complex glycan, and glycoproteins. Lectins are classified based on their sugar specificity and are used as a tool to study protein-carbohydrate interactions. Lectins are ubiquitous in nature and identified from all sources such as bacteria, fungi, algae, and animals. Plants are the most abundant source of lectins, and till now, more than three hundred lectins were characterized from plants. These are distributed to various parts of a plant according to their requirements and function. The physiological role of lectins in a plant is still not well understood. The overabundant presence of lectins in plant seeds and storage tissues indicated their role in plant development. Plant lectins shows a broad range of activities like antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal, anticancerous, antileishmanial, antiviral, and anticoagulants. In this review, we aim to highlight the plant lectins classification and their application in various biological aspects.

Recent advances in the use of legume lectins for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer

“…Understanding the human glycome comprises a crucial portion of cancer research since targeting cancerrelated glycan structures is quickly emerging as an effective diagnostic method [78][79][80]. In this context, several studies have reported on the use of lectins to map changes in the glycosylation patterns of malignant cells, making it possible to follow and predict the progression of the disease and the degree of malignancy [55,[81][82][83][84][85][86]. To accomplish this, several well-known techniques can be used, including, for example, Enzyme-Linked Lectin Assay (ELLA) [87,88], immunohistochemistry [89][90][91], lectin nanoparticle assays [92], glyco-functionalized quantum dots (QDs) with lectins [93], lectin blot analysis [58,94], lectins conjugated with fluoro-microbeads and antibody-lectin sandwich assay [87,95], SDS-PAGE/Western Blotting [96], and fluorescent labeling techniques [97,98], among others [99][100][101].…”