Carbohydrate-protein recognition

Extracellular matrix The surfaces of animal cells are covered with a flexible and sticky layer of complex carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids. This complex coating is cell-specific, serves in cell-cell recognition and communication, creates cell adhesion, and provides a protective outer layer. 

An illustrative example of carbohydrate-protein recognition has been reported by Chen and coworkers [192] using a C18-mucin mimic polymer that interacts hydro-phobically with SWCNTs. This biohybrid is able to specifically recognize the lectin Hdixpomatia agglutinin (Figure 1.15 A). Galactose-modified CNTs are able to capture... 

The chromatic transition was completely blocked by a-methyl sialoside, a soluble competitive inhibitor of the influenza virus, demonstrating that binding of the virus to the film was due to a specific carbohydrate-protein recognition event. This experiment demonstrated that the chromatic transition of the PDA backbone could be triggered by molecular recognition of a membrane surface ligand that was covalently attached to the polymerized lipid. 

The recognition step, the first event in carbohydrate protein interactions, is dependent on the overall conformation of the oUgosac aride in aqueous solution. Therefore, it is important to determine whether the conformational characteristics of the natural compounds are reflected in the substrate analogues. The most usual methods to achieve this goal is the combination of NMR spectroscopy, molecular mechanics calculations and X-ray data. On this basis, only few conformational studies of thiodisaccharides were reported. 

Sears, P. and Wong, C.H. (1996) Intervention of carbohydrate recognition by proteins and nucleic acids, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 93, 12086-12093. 

This volume contains the papers presented in a symposium on carbohydrate-protein interaction. The symposium was devoted to an exploration of protein-glycoconjugate interaction in a wide range of biological phenomena the interaction of enzymes, antibodies, and lectins with complementary carbohydrate molecules the recognition of carbohydrate-containing structures by chemoreceptors such as taste and other plasma membrane proteins and the role of carbohydrates in the organization of connective tissue. 

A range of molecular recognition based interactions have been studied using this layer type. The carbohydrate-protein interaction was investigated by Liebau et al. who, using QCM and glycolipid as the dynamic recognition element, showed some specific lectin adhesion to a supported lipid bilayer [73]. 

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