title: Preparation and immunomodulating activities of a library of low-molecular-weight α-glucans.
abstract: YCP, an α-D-glucan with molecular weight of 2.4 × 10(3)kDa, was isolated from the mycelium of marine fungus Phoma herbarum YS4108. It interacted with TLR2 and TLR4 to induce B cells proliferation and activation. Here, a series of homogenous LMWYCPs (namely LMWYCP-1 to LMWYCP-6) were obtained by acid degradation. LMWYCP-3 and LMWYCP-4 were capable of inducing the proliferation of B cells dramatically. Further research involved TLR defunctionalization and competitive binding assay demonstrated that the immunomodulating activities of LMWYCP-4 was TLR4-dependent but TLR2-independent, while that mediated by LMWYCP-3 was neither TLR2- nor TLR4-dependent. Together with the structural information that LMWYCPs shared the similar structure features with YCP, we deduced that LMWYCP-4 may be the functional unit of YCP responsible for YCP/TLR4 interaction. This is the first time that the probable functional unit of glucan with the structure of α-D-(1-4)-linked residues in main chain and α-D-(1-6)-linked residues in branches is reported.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China. Electronic address: wbyao@cpu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wenbing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China. Electronic address: xdgao@cpu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiangdong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000737:chemistry*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005936:Glucans / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D056747:Immunomodulation / Q000187:drug effects; D051379:Mice; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2 / Q000276:immunology; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4 / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D005936:Glucans; D007155:Immunologic Factors; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2; D051197:Toll-Like Receptor 4
keywords: Acid degradation; Functional unit; Immunomodulation; Low-molecular-weight glucan; Toll-like receptor