Neoglycolipid (NGL)-based oligosaccharide microarrays and highlights of their recent applications in studies of the molecular basis of pathogen-host interactions.
Carbohydrate microarray technologies are new developments at the frontier of glycomics that are showing great promise as tools for high-throughput analysis of carbohydrate-mediated interactions and the elucidation of carbohydrate ligands involved not only in endogenous receptor systems, but also pathogen-host interactions. The main advantage of microarray analysis is that a broad range of glycan sequences can be immobilized on solid matrices as minute spots and simultaneously interrogated. Different methodologies have emerged for constructing carbohydrate microarrays. The NGL (neoglycolipid)-based oligosaccharide microarray platform is among the relatively few systems that are beyond proof-of-concept and have provided new biological information. In the present article, I dwell, in some detail, on the NGL-based microarray. Highlights are the recent applications of NGL-based microarrays that have contributed to knowledge on the molecular basis of pathogen-host interactions, namely the assignments of the carbohydrate-binding specificities of several key surface-adhesive proteins of Toxoplasma gondii and other apicomplexan parasites, and the elucidation of receptor-binding specificities of the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 (H1N1pdm) virus compared with seasonal H1N1 virus.
Liu
Yan
Y
Glycosciences Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, Northwick Park and St Mark's Campus, Harrow HA1 3UJ, UK. yan.liu2@imperial.ac.uk
D000818:Animals; D054794:Glycomics / Q000379:methods*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity
D009844:Oligosaccharides