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- Title
Galactosaminogalactan, a New Immunosuppressive Polysaccharide of Aspergillus fumigatus.
- Authors
Fontaine, Thierry; Delangle, Aurélie; Simenel, Catherine; Coddeville, Bernadette; van Vliet, Sandra J.; van Kooyk, Yvette; Bozza, Silvia; Moretti, Silvia; Schwarz, Flavio; Trichot, Coline; Aebi, Markus; Delepierre, Muriel; Elbim, Carole; Romani, Luigina; Latgé, Jean-Paul
- Abstract
A new polysaccharide secreted by the human opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus has been characterized. Carbohydrate analysis using specific chemical degradations, mass spectrometry, ¹H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance showed that this polysaccharide is a linear heterogeneous galactosaminogalactan composed of α1-4 linked galactose and α1-4 linked N-acetylgalactosamine residues where both monosacharides are randomly distributed and where the percentage of galactose per chain varied from 15 to 60%. This polysaccharide is antigenic and is recognized by a majority of the human population irrespectively of the occurrence of an Aspergillus infection. GaINAc oligosaccharides are an essential epitope of the galactosaminogalactan that explains the universal antibody reaction due to cross reactivity with other antigenic molecules containing GaINAc stretches such as the N-glycans of Campylobacter jejuni. The galactosaminogalactan has no protective effect during Aspergillus infections. Most importantly, the polysaccharide promotes fungal development in immunocompetent mice due to its immunosuppressive activity associated with disminished neutrophil infiltrates.
- Subjects
POLYSACCHARIDES; ASPERGILLUS fumigatus; CARBOHYDRATES; GALACTOSE; CAMPYLOBACTER jejuni
- Publication
PLoS Pathogens, 2011, Vol 7, Issue 11, p1
- ISSN
1553-7366
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.ppat.1002372