Sialyl-Lewis determinants

Toepfer, A, Kretzschmar, G, Bartnik, E, Synthesis of novel mimetics of the sialyl Lewis determinant, Tetrahedron Lett., 36, 9161-9164, 1995. 

The precise chemical nature of some of the ligands involved in selectin-ligand interactions has been determined. All three selectins bind sialylated and fucosy-lated oligosaccharides, and in particular all three bind sialyl-Lewis (Figure 47-12), a structure present on both glycoproteins and glycolipids. Whether this compound is the actual ligand involved in vivo is not estab-... 

IV Syntheses of Oligosaccharides and Derivatives Corresponding to the Sialyl-Lewis (sLe ) and Sialyl-Lewis (sLe ) Determinants... 

Figure 26 The sialyl Lewis acid x (sLe ) determinant 54 is recognized by the selectins.

The first enzyme we evaluated for its ability to transfer unnatural sugars was the human Lewis a(l- 4)fucosyltransferase (FucT). This particular enzyme was chosen because of its potential utility in the synthesis of the tumor associate sialyl-Lewis-a antigen Q2) <1 analogs thereof. In addition, the enzyme could be quite readily obtained in a soluble form with high specific activity from human milk. The a(l- 4)FucT catalyzes reaction I below which results in the production of the Lewis-a trisaccharide determinant... 

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