title: Roles of carbohydrates in the interaction of pathogens with neural cells.
abstract: Numerous pathogens that can affect neural function utilize oligosaccharide-protein interactions as a first step in the infection process. The variability in carbohydrate structures as well as the presence of carbohydrate binding receptors on the surface of cells provides a plethora of potential binding sites for viruses, bacteria, and bacterial toxins. This chapter discusses scenarios for how carbohydrates may affect the ability of infectious agents to interact with neural cells, provides examples of problems that may result from development of antibodies to carbohydrate antigens found on pathogens that are similar to epitopes expressed on mammalian cells, and presents approaches either in use or under consideration for translational uses of this information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA, cxs8@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Cara-Lynne
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Schengrund