Impedimetric Characterization of NanA Structural Domains Activity on Sialoside-Containing Interfaces.

is a pathogenic bacterium that contains the surface-bound neuraminidase, . has two domains that interact with sialosides. It is hard to determine the contribution of each domain separately on catalysis or binding.

Multivalent inhibition of the fumigatus KDNase.

is a saprophytic fungus and opportunistic pathogen often causing fatal infections in immunocompromised patients. Recently KDNAse, an exoglycosidase hydrolyzing 3-deoxy-D-galacto-D--nonulosonic acid (KDN), a rare sugar from the sialic acid family, was identified and characterized. The principal function of KDNAse is still unclear, but a study suggests a critical role in fungal cell wall morphology and virulence.

Semisynthetic Pneumococcal Glycoconjugate Nanovaccine.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines offer an excellent safety profile and high protection against the serotypes comprised in the vaccine. However, inclusion of protein antigens fromcombined with potent adjuvants and a suitable delivery system are expected to both extend protection to serotype strains not represented in the formulation and stimulate a broader immune response, thus more effective in young children, elderly, and immunocompromised populations. Along this line, nanoparticle (NP) delivery systems can enhance the immunogenicity of antigens by protecting them from degradation and increasing their uptake by antigen-presenting cells, as well as offering co-delivery with adjuvants.

Click-electrochemistry for the rapid labeling of virus, bacteria and cell surfaces.

Methods for direct covalent ligation of microorganism surfaces remain poorly reported, and mostly based on metabolic engineering for bacteria and cells functionalization. While effective, a faster method avoiding the bio-incorporation step would be highly complementary. Here, we used N-methylluminol (NML), a fully tyrosine-selective protein anchoring group after one-electron oxidation, to label the surface of viruses, living bacteria and cells.

Site-Selective Unnatural Amino Acid Incorporation at Single or Multiple Positions to Control Sugar-Protein Connectivity in Glycoconjugate Vaccine Candidates.

In cellulo site-specific unnatural amino acid incorporation based on amber stop codon reassignment is a powerful tool to modify proteins at defined positions. This technique is herein applied to the selective functionalization of the Pneumococcal surface adhesin A protein at three distinct positions. N -propargyloxycarbonyl-l-lysine residues were incorporated and their alkyne groups reacted using click-chemistry with a synthetic azido-functionalized tetrasaccharide representative of one repeat unit of the Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 14 capsular polysaccharide.

On the use of adenovirus dodecahedron as a carrier for glycoconjugate vaccines.

Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) have been used as immunogenic molecules in numerous recombinant vaccines. VLPs can also serve as vaccine platform to exogenous antigens, usually peptides incorporated within the protein sequences which compose the VLPs or conjugated to them. We herein described the conjugation of a synthetic tetrasaccharide mimicking the Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 14 capsular polysaccharide to recombinant adenoviral type 3 dodecahedron, formed by the self-assembling of twelve penton bases and investigated the induced immune response when administered subcutaneously (s.

A chitosan-based nanosystem as pneumococcal vaccine delivery platform.

Chitosan-based nanosystems have been described as interesting tools for antigen delivery and for enhancing the immunogenicity of nasally administered vaccines. As a possible vaccine delivery method, the chemical conjugation of chitosan nanocapsules with the Streptococcus pneumoniae cell membrane protein PsaA (pneumococcal surface adhesin A) is suggested here. The antigen PsaA, common to all pneumococcus serotypes, is expected to improve its uptake by immune cells and to activate specific T cells, generating an adaptive immune response against pneumococcus.

Homogeneous Glycoconjugate Produced by Combined Unnatural Amino Acid Incorporation and Click-Chemistry for Vaccine Purposes.

Genetic code expansion is a powerful tool to introduce unnatural amino acids (UAAs) into proteins to modify their characteristics, to study or create new protein functions or to have access to protein conjugates. Stop codon suppression, in particular amber codon suppression, has emerged as the most popular method to genetically introduce UAAs at defined positions. This methodology is herein applied to the preparation of a carrier protein containing an UAA harboring a bioorthogonal functional group.

Access to Galectin-3 Inhibitors from Chemoenzymatic Synthons.

Chemoenzymatic strategies are useful for providing both regio- and stereoselective access to bioactive oligosaccharides. We show herein that a glycosynthase mutant of a α-glycosidase can react with unnatural glycosides such as 6-azido-6-deoxy-d-glucose/glucosamine to lead to β-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→3)-d-glucopyranoside or β-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→3)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranoside derivatives bearing a unique azide function. Taking advantage of the orthogonality between the azide and the hydroxyl functional groups, the former was next selectively reacted to give rise to a library of galectin-3 inhibitors.

Polyvalent Transition-State Analogues of Sialyl Substrates Strongly Inhibit Bacterial Sialidases*.

Bacterial sialidases (SA) are validated drug targets expressed by common human pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Vibrio cholerae, or Clostridium perfringens. Noncovalent inhibitors of bacterial SA capable of reaching the submicromolar level are rarely reported. In this work, multi- and polyvalent compounds are developed, based on the transition-state analogue 2-deoxy-2,3-didehydro-N-acetylneuraminic (DANA).

Linear triazole-linked pseudo oligogalactosides as scaffolds for galectin inhibitor development.

Galectins play key roles in numerous biological processes. Their mode of action depends on their localization which can be extracellular, cytoplasmic, or nuclear and is partly mediated through interactions with β-galactose containing glycans. Galectins have emerged as novel therapeutic targets notably for the treatment of inflammatory disorders and cancers.

Binding of Gold(III) Porphyrin by the Pro-metastatic Regulatory Protein Human Galectin-3.

Gold(III) porphyrin presents an attractive alternative to the use of, for example, cisplatin in chemotherapy. However, approaches that allow to selectively target cancer cells are highly sought. Many plant and mammalian lectins have been shown to bind oligosaccharide sequences of the aberrant glycosylation pattern found on cancerous tumors.

Site-Specific Conjugation for Fully Controlled Glycoconjugate Vaccine Preparation.

Glycoconjugate vaccines are formed by covalently link a carbohydrate antigen to a carrier protein whose role is to achieve a long lasting immune response directed against the carbohydrate antigen. The nature of the sugar antigen, its length, its ratio per carrier protein and the conjugation chemistry impact on both structure and the immune response of a glycoconjugate vaccine. In addition it has long been assumed that the sites at which the carbohydrate antigen is attached can also have an impact.

Combining Click Reactions for the One-Pot Synthesis of Modular Biomolecule Mimetics.

Here, we report on the first combined one-pot use of the two so-called "click reactions": the thiol-ene coupling and the copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition. These reactions were employed in an alternating and one-pot fashion to combine appropriately functionalized monomeric carbohydrate building blocks to create mimics of trisaccharides and tetrasaccharides as single anomers, with only minimal purification necessary. The deprotected oligosaccharide mimics were found to bind both plant lectins and human galectin-3.

Semisynthetic glycoconjugate based on dual role protein/PsaA as a pneumococcal vaccine.

Pneumococcal infections remain a major public health concern worldwide. The currently available vaccines in the market are based on pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides but they still need to be improved to secure an optimal coverage notably in population at risk. To circumvent this, association of virulence pneumococcal proteins to the polysaccharide valencies has been proposed with the hope to observe an additive - if not synergistic - protective effect.

Multivalent Thiosialosides and Their Synergistic Interaction with Pathogenic Sialidases.

Sialidases (SAs) hydrolyze sialyl residues from glycoconjugates of the eukaryotic cell surface and are virulence factors expressed by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and parasites. The catalytic domains of SAs are often flanked with carbohydrate-binding module(s) previously shown to bind sialosides and to enhance enzymatic catalytic efficiency. Herein, non-hydrolyzable multivalent thiosialosides were designed as probes and inhibitors of V.

Development of a Sensitive Microarray Platform for the Ranking of Galectin Inhibitors: Identification of a Selective Galectin-3 Inhibitor.

Glycan microarrays are useful tools for lectin glycan profiling. The use of a glycan microarray based on evanescent-field fluorescence detection was herein further extended to the screening of lectin inhibitors in competitive experiments. The efficacy of this approach was tested with 2/3'-mono- and 2,3'-diaromatic type II lactosamine derivatives and galectins as targets and was validated by comparison with fluorescence anisotropy proposed as an orthogonal protein interaction measurement technique.

Biophysical and structural characterization of mono/di-arylated lactosamine derivatives interaction with human galectin-3.

Combination of biophysical and structural techniques allowed characterizing and uncovering the mechanisms underlying increased binding affinity of lactosamine derivatives for galectin 3. In particular, complementing information gathered from X-ray crystallography, native mass spectrometry and isothermal microcalorimetry showed favorable enthalpic contribution of cation-π interaction between lactosamine aryl substitutions and arginine residues from the carbohydrate recognition domain, which resulted in two log increase in compound binding affinity. This incrementing strategy allowed individual contribution of galectin inhibitor moieties to be dissected.

Galectin-3 is a non-classic RNA binding protein that stabilizes the mucin MUC4 mRNA in the cytoplasm of cancer cells.

Pancreatic cancer cells express high levels of MUC1, MUC4 and MUC16 mRNAs that encode membrane-bound mucins. These mRNAs share unusual features such as a long half-life. However, it remains unknown how mucin mRNA stability is regulated.

Lactosamine-Based Derivatives as Tools to Delineate the Biological Functions of Galectins: Application to Skin Tissue Repair.

Galectins have been recognized as potential novel therapeutic targets for the numerous fundamental biological processes in which they are involved. Galectins are key players in homeostasis, and as such their expression and function are finely tuned in vivo. Thus, their modes of action are complex and remain largely unexplored, partly because of the lack of dedicated tools.

[Galectins, a class of unconventional lectins].

Galectins constitute a family of soluble animal lectins defined by their evolutionary conserved carbohydrate recognition domain and their affinity for β-galactosides containing glycoconjugates. Each galectin is characterized by a specific spatio-temporal distribution and a unique set of ligands and molecular partners. Interestingly, galectins are found both extracellularly and intracellularly and modulate various cellular processes.

De novo design of a trans-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase activity from a GH1 β-glycosidase by mechanism engineering.

Glycoside hydrolases are particularly abundant in all areas of metabolism as they are involved in the degradation of natural polysaccharides and glycoconjugates. These enzymes are classified into 133 families (CAZy server, http://www.cazy.

Murine marginal zone B cells play a role in Vibrio cholerae LPS antibody responses.

The emergence of Vibrio cholerae (Vc) lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a lead protective antigen for a cholera subunit vaccine has increased the interest in what type of B cell is best suited to generate anti-Vc LPS antibodies. A related question is what form of LPS is the most immunogenic. C57Bl/6 (B6) neonatal mice (10 days old) whose marginal zone (MZ) B cell compartment is still maturing and two lines of knockout mice that either lack the signaling mechanism required for the maturation of MZ B cells or that lack a receptor required for MZ B cell retention in the MZ were used to determine the role of MZ B cells in anti-Vc LPS antibody responses.

Acid-detoxified Inaba lipopolysaccharide (pmLPS) is a superior cholera conjugate vaccine immunogen than hydrazine-detoxified lipopolysaccharide and induces vibriocidal and protective antibodies.

Worldwide, in endemic areas of cholera, the group most burdened with cholera is children. This is especially vexing as young children (2-5 years of age) do not respond as well, or for as long as adults do, to the current killed oral cholera vaccines (OCV). Conjugate vaccines based on the hapten-carrier paradigm have been developed for several bacterial pathogens that cause widespread and severe diseases in young children.

Synthesis and immunochemical evaluation of a non-methylated disaccharide analogue of the anthrax tetrasaccharide.

Anthrax tetrasaccharide is an oligosaccharide expressed at the outermost surface of the Bacillus anthracis spores, featuring three rhamnoses and a rare sugar called anthrose. This motif has now been identified as a plausible component of future human vaccines against anthrax. We report herein the synthesis of a 2-O-demethylated-β-D-anthropyranosyl-(1→3)-α-L-rhamnopyranose disaccharide analogue of this tetrasaccharide from a cyclic sulfate intermediate.