Êtes-vous un étudiant de l'EPFL à la recherche d'un projet de semestre?
Travaillez avec nous sur des projets en science des données et en visualisation, et déployez votre projet sous forme d'application sur Graph Search.
Concept
Glycan-protein interactions
Résumé
Glycan-Protein interactions represent a class of biomolecular interactions that occur between free or protein-bound glycans and their cognate binding partners. Intramolecular glycan-protein (protein-glycan) interactions occur between glycans and proteins that they are covalently attached to. Together with protein-protein interactions, they form a mechanistic basis for many essential cell processes, especially for cell-cell interactions and host-cell interactions. For instance, SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, employs its extensively glycosylated spike (S) protein to bind to the ACE2 receptor, allowing it to enter host cells. The spike protein is a trimeric structure, with each subunit containing 22 N-glycosylation sites, making it an attractive target for vaccine search.
Glycosylation, i.e., the addition of glycans (a generic name for monosaccharides and oligosaccharides) to a protein, is one of the major post-translational modification of proteins contributing to the enormous biological complexity of life. Indeed, three different hexoses could theoretically produce from 1056 to 27,648 unique trisaccharides in contrast to only 6 peptides or oligonucleotides formed from 3 amino acids or 3 nucleotides respectively. In contrast to template-driven protein biosynthesis, the "language" of glycosylation is still unknown, making glycobiology a hot topic of current research given their prevalence in living organisms.
The study of glycan-protein interactions provides insight into the mechanisms of cell-signaling and allows to create better-diagnosing tools for many diseases, including cancer. Indeed, there are no known types of cancer that do not involve erratic patterns of protein glycosylation.
Dissociation constant
The binding of glycan-binding proteins (GBPs) to glycans could be modeled with simple equilibrium.
Source officielle
À propos de ce résultat
Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.