Biological and chemical diversity from the oceans

 

Glycobiology in Healthcare

GlycoMar has a unique combination of expertise in glycobiology and polysaccharide isolation from natural sources, especially the marine environment.

It combines this biochemical and bioindustrial knowledge with experience in the evaluation of the biological activity and bio-applications of these molecules, particularly with respect to immunomodulatory properties.

This offers a highly innovative combination of skills to support the discovery and development of novel products, encompassing both high value pharmaceutical potential and bioindustry applications such as nutritional and cosmetic uses.

Glycobiology

Glycobiology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of structure, biosynthesis, and function of saccharides (sugar chains), which may exist purely or linked to other biological molecules to form glycoconjugates. The term glycobiology was first coined in 1988 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology has declared the science of Glycobiology to be “possibly one of the ten greatest breakthroughs in the 21st century” (MIT Technology Review October 2001, Glycomics).

The study of glycomolecules is technically challenging, as no sequencing tool, such as that used in proteomics or genomics, is available. However, following on from genomics and proteomics, there is increasing recognition of the importance of carbohydrate-based molecules in basic cellular processes. This has resulted in more extensive glycomic studies in the areas of glycosylation of therapeutic proteins, glycosylation patterns in cell recognition, cellular glycoprofiling studies in cancer and other diseases, correlation between activity and sulphation patterns in glycosaminoglycans, and the improved chemical analysis and synthesis of carbohydrate molecules.

The relationship between glycomics and other ‘omics’ – a central position in biomarker and therapeutic research.

from Hart, G. W. and R. J. Copeland (2010). "Glycomics Hits the Big Time." Cell 143(5): 672-676.

Glycobiology offers enormous untapped potential in the discovery of new therapeutics derived from saccharides or other molecules which target the biosynthesis and function of saccharides.

Saccharides: multifunctional biological molecules

 

 

Saccharides offer potential chemical diversity orders of magnitude greater than their protein and nucleic acid counterparts [2].

For example, DNA can give 256 4-unit structures; amino acids can give 16000 4-unit structures, whereas the nine common monosaccharides have the theoretical ability to generate nearly 16 M 4-unit structures [2]. The level of chemical information encoded in saccharides is therefore unrivalled.

Saccharides have multiple functions which makes them relevant to almost any area of biological research. They are ubiquitously present on cell surfaces, mediating the interaction of cells with other cells, with the extracellular matrix and with effector molecules. The glycosylation of protein molecules is also critical for their function, bioavailability and half-life. Polysaccharides and glycoconjugates also play a major structural role in all connective tissues. Oligosaccharides, which are short chains of sugars derived from larger polysaccharides or synthesised in their own right, are widely studied to identify functional groups within complex glycoconjugates or polysaccharides.

Marine glycobiology offers the exciting opportunity of an enormous diversity of novel compounds, which differ significantly from mammalian glycobiology. Marine carbohydrates form the basis of the long established alginate (from sea weed) industry, and more recently of a number of nutraceutical products (from sea weed, microalgae, and shrimp waste).

References

1. Hart, G. W. and R. J. Copeland (2010). "Glycomics Hits the Big Time." Cell 143(5): 672-676

2. Turnbull, J.E. and R.A. Field, Emerging glycomics technologies. Nat Chem Biol, 2007. 3(2): p. 7

3. Maeder, T., Sweet medicines - Sugars play critical roles in many cellular functions and in disease. Study of those activities lags behind research into genes and proteins but is beginning to heat up. The discoveries promise to yield a new generation of drug therapies. Scientific American, 2002. 287(1): p. 40-4

Download our white paper: 'Oligosaccharides in drug discovery'

 

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