Spectroscopic studies of sugar-lectin interactions

Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that control various functions in living organisms including the cell-cell interaction, inflammatory and immune response, fertilization, adhesion and virulence of pathogens. Particularly galectins (defined by their binding specificity for galactosides) are in the center of many research studies as immune checkpoints in pathogenesis, or tumor progression and metastasis. The ability to design new galectin inhibitors that would suppress these negative processes envisages not only understanding the carbohydrate-lectin structure but also requires knowing the conformational behavior of the inhibitor in an unbound state. In the thesis, we propose to prepare carbohydrate conjugates bearing metal tags that allow us to measure paramagnetic NMR pseudo-contact shifts (PCS) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) sensitive to the conformation and to close environment. The interpretation of the experiment is not straightforward and theoretically based predictions will be developed, to understand the spectral parameters.

Fields of study: Analytical chemistry, chemical physics

References :

• Wu, T.; Kessler, J.; Kaminský, J.; Bouř P. Chem. Asian J. 2018, doi.: 10.1002/asia.201801157 “Recognition of Oligosaccharides by Chirality Induced in Europium (III) Compounds.”
• Canales, A. et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 14987. “Breaking the Limits in Analyzing Carbohydrate Recognition by NMR Spectroscopy: Resolving Branch-Selective Interaction of a Tetra-Antennary N-Glycan with Lectins