Glycoimmunology

The Jenner International Glycoimmunology Meetings have charted the rapid devel opment of glycobiology within the field of inflammation. In less than a decade, the science has grown from basically being involved in carbohydrate analysis to the understanding of how sugars are associated with inflammation and how they have potential as anti inflammatory therapeutics. The 4th Jenner International Glycoimmunology Meeting was re cently held in Loutraki, Greece, and set the scene for what promises to be an exciting future for the speciality. Discussion reflected the rapid advances glycobiology is making and ranged from the basic biochemistry of carbohydrate physiology to therapeutic trials utilizing synthetic sugars designed to block inflammatory responses. The meeting is summarized in considerable detail in this book which will provide the interested scientist and clinician with the essential up-to-date facts within the field of glyco immunology. Acknowledgments Many people have been involved in ensuring the success of the Jenner Glycoimmu nology Meetings but none more so than my secretary Susan Henderson who has borne the brunt of all four meetings and is currently preparing for the 5th.

Proceedings of the Third Jenner International Glycoimmunology meeting held in Il Ciocco, Tuscany, Italy, October 11-14, 1994

This book describes general glycobiology in emphasizing the structures, biosynthesis, glycosylation and distribution of the glycans and xenogenic glycoantigens in eukaryotic cells of mammals including mouse, swine, chimpanzee and human. In the middle, I have focused on topics in xenotransplantation glycobiology and expand descriptions of allogenic and xenoantigenic transplantation to open the dawn in insights into the origin of life. One of the biological diversity, named species diversity, is a phenomenon environmentally adapted from the evolutionary process for long period. The distinct structures of glycans discriminate each organism and are the essential molecular basis of the discrimination and difference between the organisms, giving an incompatibility between the different species. Diversity and variations in carbohydrate chain structures between family, species, kingdoms and domains mark the global pattern and signs of immune self- and non-self recognition. In human, diversity in ABH blood group antigens is observed in human family and this type pattern distinguishes individuals from a pan-family to non-dividable unit of the family. Blood transfusion and organ transplantation are impossible even in the allogenic cross between humans if carbohydrates are ignored. This explains how and how human beings are a lonely existence. ABH-related antibodies induce hemolysis or hyperacute or allograft rejection due to incompatible graft property even between the same species. The incompatibility is an immunologic rejection when the recipient host receives the tissues or organs from the different species of donors, as well-known in pig-to-human xenotransplantation. The immunologic incompatibility between the donor pigs and the recipient human are based on the evolutionary distance between pigs and humans. This distance allows a xenograft rejection between the 2 mammals. Modification or deletion of the specific gene locus for immune rejection on genome of donor animals disrupts the immunological recognition ligands of the donor organs, consequently preventing the immune rejection of the human recipient and xenograft rejection. This book helps undergraduate and graduate students, researcher and professors who are involved in the glycobiology and xenoantigenic biology with recent advances in the xenotransplantation basic and clinic.

Sugar chains (glycans) are often attached to proteins and lipids and have multiple roles in the organization and function of all organisms. "Essentials of Glycobiology" describes their biogenesis and function and offers a useful gateway to the understanding of glycans.

The aim of the book is to provide a succinct overview of the current status of glycoscience from both basic biological and medical points of view and to propose future directions, in order to facilitate further integrations of glycoscience with other fields in biological and medical studies. Glycans (carbohydrate oligomers) are the so-called “building blocks” of carbohydrates, nucleic acids, proteins and lipids and play major roles in many biological phenomena as well as in various pathophysiological processes. However, this area of glycoscience has been neglected from the research community because glycan structures are very complex and functionally diverse and as compared to proteins and nucleic acids simple tools for the amplification, sequencing and auto-synthesis of glycans are not available. Many scientists in other fields of research have now realized that glycosylation, i.e. the addition of glycans to a protein backbone, is the most abundant post translational modification reactions and is an important field of research and sometimes they require a glycobiology and/or glycochemistry approach to be used. It is still difficult, however, for non-expert researchers to use these techniques. This book will provide numerous but simple overviews of current topics and protocols for the experiments. The book is aimed at university students and above, including non-experts in the field of glycoscience.

This book systemically presents the latest research on lectins, covering all the major topics in the field, including the heterocomplex of lectins and Toll-like receptors, protective versus pathogenic functions in connection with microbial infections, and novel strategies for enhancing host immunity against infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Lectins are a large group of glycan-binding proteins that recognize diverse glycan and non-glycan structures expressed on prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, and are vital to cell-cell interactions, the attachment of microbes to host cells, and the recognition and activation of immune responses to exogenous and endogenous danger signals. The composition and structure of microbes are complex and include numerous ‘pathogen-associated molecular patterns’ or ‘damage-associated molecular patterns’. As such, microbes’ interactions with immune cells activate multiple innate immunity receptors and produce distinct inflammatory reactions, which can be protective to contain microbial invasion, or pathogenic to cause tissue damage and shock syndrome in the host. The book shares lessons learned from state-of-the art research in this field, highlights the latest discoveries, and provides insightful discussions on lectin-mediated inflammatory reactions, while also outlining future research directions.