Synthetic glycosylphosphatidylinositol as tools for glycoparasitology research

Carbohydrate-protein interactions are involved in various intracellular functions and play an essential role in biological system, particularly at the level of cell-cell recognition, cell adhesion, and cell signaling processes. The importance of carbohydrate-protein binding is now recognized as a major mode of interaction between microbial pathogens and animal cells. Using innovative synthetic methods for oligosaccharide assembly an increasing number of synthetic carbohydrates of biomedical importance is available. Here, we illustrate using some case studies that show the design and the use of a glycosylphosphatidylinositol oligosaccharide library. We discuss the importance of parasite glycosylphosphatidylinositol-protein interactions including receptors, enzymes, and antibodies. Furthermore, glycosylphosphatidylinositol epitope mapping studies are of interest in the field of parasitic diseases, and provide a promising platform to understand structure-function relationships of glycosylphosphatidylinositols.