Microbial adhesin

Microbial pathogens utilize different types of lectins for targeting the glycans on the surface of host cells. Many bacteria are covered with pili or fimbriae that contain a very special class of lectins known as adhesins because they play a role in attachment to epithelial cells. These lectins are monomeric and comprise only one binding site. Because the adhesins are repeated on the pilus, a larger number of adhesins on the bacterial surface create multivalent interaction with the host glycans. 

Some unusual aminosaccharides can have antibacterial and antibiotic effects this is the case of 3-amino-3-deoxy-D-glucose isolated from deep-sea bacteria (a Bacillus strain) collected at a depth of 4310 m [178]. More importantly, cellular receptors responsible for the adherence of microbes to eukaryotic cells are often lectin-type adhesins [179], and aminosaccharide treatment can result in the protection against microbial infections [ 180]. 

Keywords Adhesin, Carbohydrate binding, Glycoconjugate receptor, Helicobacter pylori, Microbial adhesion... 

The field is introduced in the first chapter, which points out the complexity of the adhesion process involving multiple adhesins on a single microbe and their respective target receptors on host cells, and discusses the possibility of controlling bacterial infections via preventing the adhesion or invasion stages of microbial pathogenesis. The latter issue touches on a vision of an anti-adhesive therapy, which in our opinion receives some validation on the basis of the contributions collected herein. 

The second chapter is a comprehensive summary of the polyvalent molecular architectures which have been conceived and synthesized in order to interfere in microbial adhesion processes on cell surfaces, an event where multivalent interactions most often are a prerequisite. Molecular constructs as described in this section can serve to investigate and manipulate fimbriae-mediated bacterial adhesion, as in the case of E. coli type 1 fimbriae-mediated bacterial adhesion, which is explored in all structure-biological details in the third chapter. In the following contributions in Chapters 4 and 5, more implications and reflections about bacterial adhesins and... 

Microorganisms attach to host cells via an often unique and speciflc process. Microbial surface structures called adhesins react and combine with complementary receptor sites on host cells. The specific interaction is how individual microbial strains demonstrate a predilection for a particular host body site [3]. 

Hoepelman, A. I. M. and Tuomanen, E. I., Consequences of Microbial Attachment Directing Host cell functions with adhesins. Infect Immun, 1992, 60 1729-1733. 

Gabriel, O., Heeb, M. J., and Hinrichs, M., 1984, Interaction of the surface adhesins of the oral Actinomyces ssp. with mammalian cells, in ASM Molecular Basis of Oral Microbial Adhesion, Proceedings of a workshop held in Philadelphia, pp. 45-52. 

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