Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GlycoPeptides (Exploiting in vitro evolution of macrocyclic glycopeptides to explore selectin interactions)
Período documentado: 2017-05-01 hasta 2019-04-30
The interaction between proteins and sugars is often weak, requiring many interactions to work together to give a strong effect. For this reason, it has been difficult to find molecules that can be used to target selectins. In this work, we investigated the interaction between selectins and glycans and tried to find molecules that can be used to disrupt the selectin-glycan interaction. These might eventually be useful in medicine, for example preventing chronic inflammation or stopping cancer cells from hijacking this adhesion process to spread throughout the body.
Our objectives were to find molecules that could bind strongly and selectively to each of the three selectins. To achieve this, we modified a system for generating tens of billions of different compounds at a time, with DNA used as a barcode to allow identification of which of these many different molecules can bind to the selectin. This required us to develop some new chemical tools to allow this pool of molecules to better resemble the glycans that selectins normally bind to, improving our chances of success. We also aimed to use this vast pool of different molecules to look for patterns of binding that might teach us more about how selectins work.
With these tools ready, we looked for specific molecules from this pool of tens of billions of different options that could bind specifically to E-selectin (one of the three types of selectin). This proved successful, and we identified several promising candidate molecules that we are now in the process of testing. These results will lead to a publication in an academic journal, and potentially developed further as treatment for diseases where selectin involvement has been shown.