Glycobiology And Human Diseases

This book discusses glycobiology and various forms of human diseases. Topics covered include immunoglobulins, inflammation and glycosylation, the role and therapeutic significance of natural anti-glycan antibodies in malignancies and in normal and aberrant pregnancy, identifying urinary glycans as a possible method for the diagnosis of lysosomal storage diseases, glycobiology of human milk (biological roles and diseases) and pectins as biological modulators of human physiological reactions. The book includes analysis of comprehensive data and some productive conclusions and perspectives.

Sugar chains (glycans) are often attached to proteins and lipids and have multiple roles in the organization and function of all organisms. "Essentials of Glycobiology" describes their biogenesis and function and offers a useful gateway to the understanding of glycans.

Along with nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids, carbohydrates stand as one of four main components of cellular architecture. However, glycobiology (or carbohydrate bioscience) is little understood by non-experts, partly because carbohydrates are a complex, diverse class of molecules structurally and functionally. In recent years, advances in computational analytics (glycomics) have allowed us to better interpret and realize the importance of glycobiology in human health and disease, and glycans and their associated processes have been shown to play a significant role across a variety of disease types. As the biomedical sciences continue to adopt multi-omic and precision medicine approaches, a greater understanding of glycobiology is essential for maintaining healthy physiology and advancing disease treatment.Translational Glycobiology in Human Health and Disease offers a deep examination of glycobiology for experts and non-experts alike in areas ranging from the role of glycobiology in chronic and infectious diseases to advances in technologies for higher throughput analysis and diagnosis. While keeping human health in the forefront, this book integrates a thorough discussion of glycobiology fundamentals with its growing areas of application and societal impact. With emphasis throughout on the interdisciplinary nature of glycosciences, this book also features perspectives from the health, computational (glycoanalytics), materials, biopharmaceutical, and diagnostic sciences.Disease and speciality areas addressed include gycoimmunology, neuroglycobiology, commensal glycobiology, gut health, regenerative medicine and glycobiology, glycobiology and cancer, congenital disorders of glycosylation, infectious disease glycobiology, and parasite glycobiology. Computational approaches discussed, supporting the advance of new research, include advanced glycoanalytics, glycomics microarrays, glycoengineering, and glycol systems biology. Additionally, authors consider impact areas for society and public health, such as glycobiology and entrepreneurship, policy and regulatory requirements for glycosylation, future research, and translation to new diagnostics and drug discovery. Provides a deep, foundational overview of glycoscience and its translational potential, highlighting glycobiology’s growing role in human health and disease study Examines a broad range of relevant disease areas and applications of glycobiology in policy and public health Features chapter contributions from leading, international experts in the field, fully integrating perspectives from the health, computational, materials, biopharmaceutical, and diagnostic sciences

Diverse alterations of glycosylation occur in diseases such as cancer, metastasis, leukemia, inflammatory and other diseases. The glycosylation abnormalities found in disease are the result of complex rearrangements of the oligosaccharide assembly by glycosyltransferases. This volume reviews several mechanisms that may underly the extremely complex alterations in disease. Disease specific glycosylation may contribute to the disease process by altering cellular functions, or may be exploited therapeutically. Specific therapy may be aimed at correcting glycosylation abnormalities based on knowledge of the mechanisms leading to the disease phenotype and the three-dimensional interactions between carbohydrates and carbohydrate-binding molecules.

Glycobiology is an emerging field of studying glycans (sugars) and glycoconjugates that are essentially involved in almost all biological processes, from fine-tuning glycoprotein function to protein-protein interactions, signaling, immune response, host-pathogen interactions, etc. However, due to structural complexity of glycans and analytical challenges this exciting field was lagging behind other areas of biology. With technological advancements growing number of glycans’ functions are being discovered and the study of glycans is becoming a cutting-edge discipline in basic and clinical research. Despite recent developments in glycobiology field, many aspects of glycosylation process still remain unknown, both in a healthy human organism and in pathological states. Human glycome is dynamic and changes with physiological triggers, immune challenges and disease. Atypical glycosylation is consequently a subject of disease biomarker research, and a target for therapeutic interventions. On the other hand, properties of glycosylated biotherapeutics are predominantly determined by their glycans. The Role of Glycosylation in Health and Disease provides a comprehensive overview of types and functions of glycans in a healthy human organism as well as their role in pathophysiology of different diseases and efficiency of glycosylated biotherapeutics. Written by the experts in the field, this book aims to bring glycobiology field closer to students, researchers in life sciences and professionals in biopharmaceutical industry.

This volume provides a comprehensive understanding of the enigmatic identity of the glycome, a complex but important area of research that has been largely ignored due to its complexity. The authors thoroughly deal with almost all aspects of the glycome, i.e., elucidation of the glycan identity enigma and its role in regulation of the cellular process, and in disease etiology. The book bridges the knowledge gap in understanding the glycome, from being a cell signature to its applications in disease etiology. In addition, it details many of the major insights regarding the possible role of the glycome in various diseases as a therapeutic marker. The book systematically covers the major aspects of the glycome, including the significance of substituting the diverse monosaccharide units to glycoproteins, the role of glycans in disease pathologies, and the challenges and advances in glycobiology. The authors stress the significance and huge encoding power of carbohydrates as well as provide helpful insights in framing the bigger picture. The Glycome: Understanding the Diversity and Complexity of Glycobiology details state-of-the-art developments and emerging challenges of glycome biology, which are going to be key areas of future research, not only in the glycobiology field but also in pharmaceutics.

This book summarizes recent advances in antibody glycosylation research. Covering major topics relevant for immunoglobulin glycosylation - analytical methods, biosynthesis and regulation, modulation of effector functions - it provides new perspectives for research and development in the field of therapeutic antibodies, biomarkers, vaccinations, and immunotherapy. Glycans attached to both variable and constant regions of antibodies are known to affect the antibody conformation, stability, and effector functions. Although it focuses on immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most explored antibody in this context, and unravels the natural phenomena resulting from the mixture of IgG glycovariants present in the human body, the book also discusses other classes of human immunoglobulins, as well as immunoglobulins produced in other species and production systems. Further, it reviews the glycoanalytical methods applied to antibodies and addresses a range of less commonly explored topics, such as automatization and bioinformatics aspects of high-throughput antibody glycosylation analysis. Lastly, the book highlights application areas ranging from the ones already benefitting from antibody glycoengineering (such as monoclonal antibody production), to those still in the research stages (such as exploration of antibody glycosylation as a clinical or biological age biomarker), and the potential use of antibody glycosylation in the optimization of vaccine production and immunization protocols. Summarizing the current knowledge on the broad topic of antibody glycosylation and its therapeutic and biomarker potential, this book will appeal to a wide biomedical readership in academia and industry alike. Chapter 4 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Introduction to Glycobiology reveals the true impact of the sugars on biological systems, explaining their function at the molecular, cellular, and organismal level and their clinical relevance.