Sialic acids in infection and their potential use in detection and protection against pathogens.

In structural terms, the sialic acids are a large family of nine carbon sugars based around an alpha-keto acid core. They are widely spread in nature, where they are often found to be involved in molecular recognition processes, including in development, immunology, health and disease. The prominence of sialic acids in infection is a result of their exposure at the non-reducing terminus of glycans in diverse glycolipids and glycoproteins. Herein, we survey representative aspects of sialic acid structure, recognition and exploitation in relation to infectious diseases, their diagnosis and prevention or treatment. Examples covered span influenza virus and Covid-19, Leishmania and Trypanosoma, algal viruses, Campylobacter, Streptococci and Helicobacter, and commensal Ruminococci.

Age-related changes in the physical properties, cross-linking, and glycation of collagen from mouse tail tendon.

Collagen is a structural protein whose internal cross-linking critically determines the properties and functions of connective tissue. Knowing how the cross-linking of collagen changes with age is key to understanding why the mechanical properties of tissues change over a lifetime. The current scientific consensus is that collagen cross-linking increases with age and that this increase leads to tendon stiffening. Here, we show that this view should be reconsidered. Using MS-based analyses, we demonstrated that during aging of healthy C57BL/6 mice, the overall levels of collagen cross-linking in tail tendon decreased with age. However, the levels of lysine glycation in collagen, which is not considered a cross-link, increased dramatically with age. We found that in 16-week-old diabetic db/db mice, glycation reaches levels similar to those observed in 98-week-old C57BL/6 mice, while the other cross-links typical of tendon collagen either decreased or remained the same as those observed in 20-week-old WT mice. These results, combined with findings from mechanical testing of tendons from these mice, indicate that overall collagen cross-linking in mouse tendon decreases with age. Our findings also reveal that lysine glycation appears to be an important factor that contributes to tendon stiffening with age and in diabetes.

Fluorescent mannosides serve as acceptor substrates for glycosyltransferase and sugar-1-phosphate transferase activities in Euglena gracilis membranes.

Synthetic hexynyl α-D-mannopyranoside and its α-1,6-linked disaccharide counterpart were fluorescently labelled through CuAAC click chemistry with 3-azido-7-hydroxycoumarin. The resulting triazolyl-coumarin adducts, which were amenable to analysis by TLC, HPLC and mass spectrometry, proved to be acceptor substrates for α-1,6-ManT activities in mycobacterial membranes, as well as α- and ß-GalT activities in trypanosomal membranes, benchmarking the potential of the fluorescent acceptor approach against earlier radiochemical assays. Following on to explore the glycobiology of the benign protozoan alga Euglena gracilis, α-1,3- and α-1,2-ManT activities were detected in membrane preparations, along with GlcT, Glc-P-T and GlcNAc-P-T activities. These studies serve to demonstrate the potential of readily accessible fluorescent glycans as substrates for exploring carbohydrate active enzymes.

Click chemistry oligomerisation of azido-alkyne-functionalised galactose accesses triazole-linked linear oligomers and macrocycles that inhibit Trypanosoma cruzi macrophage invasion.

Reaction of 2-(2-(2-azidoethoxy)ethoxy)ethyl 6-O-(prop-2-ynyl)-ß-d-galactopyranoside (7) under CuAAC conditions gives rise to mixed cyclic and linear triazole-linked oligomers, with individual compounds up to d.p. 5 isolable, along with mixed larger oligomers. The linear compounds resolve en bloc from the cyclic materials by RP HPLC, but are separable by gel permeation chromatography. The triazole-linked oligomers-pseudo-galactooligomers-were demonstrated to be acceptor substrates for the multi-copy cell surface trans-sialidase of the human parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. In addition, these multivalent TcTS ligands were able to block macrophage invasion by T. cruzi.