title: Recognition of acetylated oligosaccharides by human L-ficolin.
abstract: The complement system is a protein cascade capable of neutralizing invading pathogens. One of its activation pathways is the lectin pathway which is dependent on the binding of MBL or the ficolins. The specificity of L-ficolin binding has been investigated previously and it was observed that binding is dependent on acetyl groups. If this was the only requirement this would enable L-ficolin to bind to most mammalian glycosylations since they contain acetylated monosaccharides. To investigate this further L-ficolin was subjected to glycan-array analysis in which L-ficolin binding to 279 different glycans was investigated. Few of these bound L-ficolin above background level but clear structural requirements were discovered.
authors.affiliation: MRC Immunochemistry Unit, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford UK. anders.krarup@bioch.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krarup
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Sim
mesh_terms: D000107:Acetylation; D006801:Humans; D037102:Lectins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D000097604:Ficolins
chemical_list: D037102:Lectins; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D000097604:Ficolins