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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Targeting Cysteine Thiols for in Vitro Site-specific Glycosylation of Recombinant Proteins
Published on: October 4, 2017
Glycosylation regulates turnover of cyclooxygenase-2
Mary B Sevigny1, Chai-Fei Li, Monika Alas
1Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, CA 94901, USA.
Abstract:
Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the prostanoid biosynthesis pathway, converting arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H(2). COX-2 exists as 72 and 74kDa glycoforms, the latter resulting from an additional oligosaccharide chain at residue Asn(580). In this study, Asn(580) was mutated to determine the biological significance of this variable glycosylation. COS-1 cells transfected with the mutant gene were unable to express the 74kDa glycoform and were found to accumulate more COX-2 protein and have five times greater COX-2 activity than cells expressing both glycoforms. Thus, COX-2 turnover appears to depend upon glycosylation of the 72kDa glycoform.
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