Sugar nucleotide regeneration system for the synthesis of Bi- and triantennary N-glycans and exploring their activities against siglecs.

Enzymatic synthesis that is commenced by the sugar nucleotide regeneration system (SNRS) protocol can minimize 1) the consumption of exorbitant sugar nucleotides, 2) the amount of transferases required, and 3) byproduct feedback inhibition. In this study, LacNAc extensions/modifications of the N-linked mannose core were carried out efficiently with SNRS with high yields and purities on all branches in a uniform manner. In addition, we demonstrate that with SNRS, bacterial glycosyltransferases exhibit a wide acceptor tolerance for bi- and triantennary mannose core structures as substrates for target oligosaccharides. The synthesized small library of mannose core-based glycans and linear O-glycans were screened for their binding affinity against h-Siglecs 2, 4, 7, 9, 14, 15, and m-Siglec-15 to explore their structure-based binding preferences. Microarray data revealed that each Siglec showed few distinct yet overlapping specificities. An increase in branching from mono to di or tri antennary did not necessarily lead to increasing affinity. Glycans with the disialoside sequence α(2,3)α(2,8)/α(2,6)α(2,8) showed high specificity and affinity for Siglec-7, and sLex α(2,3) exhibited a strong affinity for Siglec-9. Explicit recognition of α(2,6)α(2,3)- linear and α(2,3)α(2,6)-branched glycans by Siglecs-2, 4, and 15, respectively, suggests that these structures can act as potential candidates for the further development of high-affinity ligands.