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Updated: Oct 18, 2025

Analysis of the Lipid Composition of Mycobacteria by Thin Layer Chromatography
Published on: April 16, 2021
Developments in the Synthesis of Mycobacterial Phenolic Glycolipids
J Hessel M van Dijk1, Gijs A van der Marel1, Jeroen D C Codée1
1Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Einsteinweg 55, 2333 CC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The highly lipophilic outer barrier of mycobacteria, such as M. tuberculosis and M. leprae, is key to their virulence and intrinsic antibiotic resistance. Various components of this mycomembrane interact with the host immune system but many of these interactions remain ill-understood. This review covers several chemical syntheses of one of these components, mycobacterial phenolic glycolipids (PGLs), and outlines the interaction of these PGLs with the human immune system, as established using these well-defined pure compounds.
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