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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Determination of Tolerable Fatty Acids and Cholera Toxin Concentrations Using Human Intestinal Epithelial Cells and BALB/c Mouse Macrophages
Published on: May 30, 2013
Carbohydrate-based anti-adhesive inhibition of Vibrio cholerae toxin binding to GM1-OS immobilized into artificial
Haydn R Sinclair1, Fred Kemp, Jaap de Slegte
1University of Reading, Whiteknights, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We have studied 'food grade' sialyloligosaccharides (SOS) as anti-adhesive drugs or receptor analogues, since the terminal sialic acid residue has already been shown to contribute significantly to the adhesion and pathogenesis of the Vibrio cholerae toxin (Ctx). GM1-oligosaccharide (GM1-OS) was immobilized into a supporting POPC lipid bilayer onto a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) chip, and the interaction between uninhibited Ctx and GM1-OS-POPC was measured. SOS inhibited 94.7% of the Ctx binding to GM1-OS-POPC at 10mg/mL. The SOS EC(50) value of 5.521mg/mL is high compared with 0.2811microg/mL (182.5rhoM or 1.825x10(-10)M) for GM1-OS. The commercially available sialyloligosaccharide (SOS) mixture Sunsial E((R)) is impure, containing one monosialylated and two disialylated oligosaccharides in the ratio 9.6%, 6.5% and 17.5%, respectively, and 66.4% protein. However, these inexpensive food-grade molecules are derived from egg yolk and could be used to fortify conventional food additives, by way of emulsifiers, sweeteners and/or preservatives. The work further supports our hypothesis that SOS could be a promising natural anti-adhesive glycomimetic against Ctx and prevent subsequent onset of disease.
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