Galectin-1 is a protein that sits on the surface of all human cells and is seen by many as an interesting target in diagnostics and therapy. Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) scientists are interested in a very specific section of this protein, the carbohydrate recognition domain. It has been shown that if Galectin-1 is blocked, the tumor can be recognized by the immune system and attacked. They have now designed a complex sugar molecule that fits perfectly into this carbohydrate domain so that Galectin-1 can be blocked, as reported in the journal ChemBioChem.
Professor Jürgen Seibel of the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg says, "We have equipped the sugar molecule with a docking site, for example, to connect it with a fluorescent dye or an drug." In addition, the scientists have described the binding of their molecule to galectin-1 with high-resolution X-ray structure analyzes.
Now the JMU scientists are working on a rapid test for the detection of galectin-1 to enable early detection of tumors such as neuroblastoma. For the future, they would like expand the sugar molecules into a kind of shuttle system that allows pharmaceutical agents to be transported directly to the tumors.
Image: Like a spaceship, the complex sugar molecule (coloured) lands exactly on the tumor protein galectin-1, which here looks like a meteorite and is shown in black and white. (Picture: Workgroup Seibel, VCH-Wiley)