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Author Spotlight: Dendritic Cells Maturation Using Sialidases-Based Enzymatic Treatment of the Cell Surface
Published on: October 20, 2023
Metabolic Remodeling of Cell-Surface Sialic Acids: Principles, Applications, and Recent Advances
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Synthetic and Functional Biomolecules Center and, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Abstract:
Cell-surface sialic acids are essential in mediating a variety of physiological and pathological processes. Sialic acid chemistry and biology remain challenging to investigate, demanding new tools for probing sialylation in living systems. The metabolic glycan labeling (MGL) strategy has emerged as an invaluable chemical biology tool that enables metabolic installation of useful functionalities into cell-surface sialoglycans by "hijacking" the sialic acid biosynthetic pathway. Here we review the principles of MGL and its applications in study and manipulation of sialic acid function, with an emphasis on recent advances.
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