Antigens: Carbohydrates

Mepur H Ravindranath, John Wayne Cancer Institute, Santa Monica, California, USA
Donald L Morton, John Wayne Cancer Institute, Santa Monica, California, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0000500

Carbohydrate antigens are polymeric chains of diverse monomeric sugar molecules. Carbohydrate antigens can induce antibody production without the help of T lymphocytes and are also recognized by cell-surface lectins.

Keywords: carbohydrates; neutral glycolipids; gangliosides; N-linked glycoproteins; O-linked glycoproteins; polysialic acids

Figure 1. Structure and relationship of neutral glycosphingolipids.
Figure 2. Structure and biosynthesis of gangliosides.
Figure 3. Structure of the ABH blood group antigens showing linear and branched determinants.
Figure 4. Association of blood group antigens with lactosylceramide, globoside, lacto-N-tetraoside.
Figure 5. Structure of ABH blood group antigens associated with ceramides and erythrocyte glycoproteins band 3, band 4.5.
Figure 6. O-Glycan associated blood group antigen determinants (T, Th, Tn, sialyl-Tn and Cad).
close
 References
    Archibald AR and Baddiley J (1966) The teichoid acids. Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry 21: 323–375.
    Berger EG, Buddecke E, Kamerling JP et al. (1982) Structure, biosynthesis and functions of glycoprotein glycans. Experientia 38: 1129–1258.
    Basu M, De T, Das KK et al. (1987) Glycolipids. Methods in Enzymology 138E: 567–574.
    Jerne NK (1960) Immunological speculations. Annual Review of Microbiology 14: 341–368.
    Kielian T and Blecha F (1995) CD14 and other recognition molecules for lipopolysaccharide: a review. Immunopharmacology 29: 187–205.
    King M (1994) Blood group antigens on human erythrocyte – distribution, structure and possible functions. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1197: 15–44.
    Kleene R and Berger EG (1993) The molecular and cell biology of glycosyltransferases. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1154: 283–325.
    Livingston PO, Zhang S and Lloyd K (1997) Carbohydrate vaccines that induce antibodies against cancer. I. Rationale. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy 45: 1–9, 10–19.
    Reglero A, Rodriguez-Aparicio LB and Luengo JM (1993) Polysialic acids. International Journal of Biochemistry 25: 1517–1527.
    book Rich RR, Fleisher TA, Schwartz BD, Shearer WT and Strober W (1996) Clinical Immunology, Principles and Practice,vols I and II. St. Louis: CV Mosby.
    book Roth J (1997) "Protein glycosylation in the Golgi apparatus".In: Berger EG and Roth J (eds) The Golgi Apparatus, pp. 131–161. Basel: Birkhauser.
    Rougon G (1993) Structure, metabolism and cell biology of polysialic acids. European Journal of Cell Biology 61: 197–1207.
    Spitalnik SL (1987) Human monoclonal antibodies directed against carbohydrates. Methods in Enzymology 138E: 492–503.
    Tonn SJ and Gander JE (1979) Biosynthesis of polysaccharides by prokaryotes. Annual Review of Microbiology 33: 169–199.
    book Wiegandt H (1985) "Glycolipids".In: New Comprehensive Biochemistry,vol. 10. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.
 Further Reading
    Muramatsu T (1993) Carbohydrate signals in metastasis and prognosis of human carcinomas. Glycobiology 3: 294–296.
    book Oettgen HF (1989) Gangliosides and Cancer. New York: VCH.
    Ravindranath MH and Morton DL (1997) Immunogenicity of membrane-bound gangliosides in viable whole-cell vaccines. Cancer Investigation 15: 491–499.

Related Sub-Topics:

Antigens | Other Biomolecules: Structure, Function, Metabolism
Contact Editor close
Submit a note to the editor about this article by filling in the form below.

* Required Field

Article Title: Antigens: Carbohydrates
 
How to Cite close
Ravindranath, Mepur H, and Morton, Donald L(Apr 2001) Antigens: Carbohydrates. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0000500]