Abstract
Carbohydrates play a crucial role in host-microorganism interactions and many host glycoconjugates are receptors or co-receptors for microbial binding. Host glycosylation varies with species and location in the body, and this contributes to species specificity and tropism of commensal and pathogenic bacteria. Additionally, bacterial glycosylation is often the first bacterial molecular species encountered and responded to by the host system. Accordingly, characterising and identifying the exact structures involved in these critical interactions is an important priority in deciphering microbial pathogenesis. Carbohydrate-based microarray platforms have been an underused tool for screening bacterial interactions with specific carbohydrate structures, but they are growing in popularity in recent years. In this review, we discuss carbohydrate-based microarrays that have been profiled with whole bacteria, recombinantly expressed adhesins or serum antibodies. Three main types of carbohydrate-based microarray platform are considered; (i) conventional carbohydrate or glycan microarrays; (ii) whole mucin microarrays; and (iii) microarrays constructed from bacterial polysaccharides or their components. Determining the nature of the interactions between bacteria and host can help clarify the molecular mechanisms of carbohydrate-mediated interactions in microbial pathogenesis, infectious disease and host immune response and may lead to new strategies to boost therapeutic treatments.
Highlights
Carbohydrates play a crucial role in a wide variety of biological processes such as cell-cell recognition, metastasis, immune system mediation and function, intracellular trafficking and progression of many diseases including cancer [1,2]
We discuss carbohydrate-based microarrays that have been used to explore bacterial-carbohydrate interactions. These studies are presented in three main sections encompassing three main types of carbohydrate-based microarray platforms; (i) carbohydrate or glycan microarrays (Figure 2), consisting of low molecular mass mono- to oligo-saccharides as found in the host system which have been profiled with whole bacterial cells or recombinantly expressed potential adhesins from bacteria to determine their carbohydrate-binding specificity; (ii) whole mucin microarrays (Figure 2), which were profiled with lectins and whole bacteria to determine mucin glycosylation and bacterial binding tropisms; and (iii) microarrays constructed from bacterial polysaccharides or components of bacterial glycosylation, which have been profiled with serum or antibodies
Helicobacter pylori is a microaerophilic, Gram-negative, motile, flagellate, spiral gastric pathogen and is present in almost half of the world’s population [53]. It colonises the gastric mucus of humans and some other primates, but does not naturally infect other hosts, and causes gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) and gastric adenocarcinoma [43,54,55]. It adheres to the cell surface and the mucus using several adhesins; the blood group antigen binding adhesin (BabA), which binds to the Lewis b (Leb) motif, and the sialic acid binding adhesin (SabA), which binds to the sialyl Lewis x (Lex) and sialyl Lewis a (Lea) motifs (Figure 3) on glycoproteins and glycolipids
Summary
Carbohydrates play a crucial role in a wide variety of biological processes such as cell-cell recognition, metastasis, immune system mediation and function, intracellular trafficking and progression of many diseases including cancer [1,2]. We discuss carbohydrate-based microarrays that have been used to explore bacterial-carbohydrate interactions These studies are presented in three main sections encompassing three main types of carbohydrate-based microarray platforms; (i) carbohydrate or glycan microarrays (Figure 2), consisting of low molecular mass mono- to oligo-saccharides as found in the host system which have been profiled with whole bacterial cells or recombinantly expressed potential adhesins from bacteria to determine their carbohydrate-binding specificity; (ii) whole mucin microarrays (Figure 2), which were profiled with lectins and whole bacteria to determine mucin glycosylation and bacterial binding tropisms; and (iii) microarrays constructed from bacterial polysaccharides or components of bacterial glycosylation, which have been profiled with serum or antibodies. These molecules and organisms are outside the scope of this review and will not be discussed here
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