Glycome Atlas
Glycome pillar
How lectins and glycan patterns guide immune recognition, trafficking, activation, and restraint.
C-type lectin receptors are sugar-sensing receptors on immune cells. Many need calcium to grip their target sugars, which is what the C stands for. They let cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells detect the sugar coats of microbes.
Read reviewed entryGalectins are a family of proteins that recognize and bind galactose-containing sugars on the surface of cells. By cross-linking these sugars they organize receptors on the cell surface and send signals that influence how cells grow, stick together, and die.
Read reviewed entryLectins are proteins that read the sugar coatings on cells. Instead of cutting or building sugars, they simply recognize and grab onto specific sugar shapes, a bit like a key fitting a lock. Cells and microbes are covered in these sugar patterns, so lectins act as the molecules that let one cell sense the sugar identity of another.
Read reviewed entrySelectins are adhesion molecules that let white blood cells stick lightly to the vessel wall and roll along it, like a piece of tape that grabs and releases as it tumbles. There are three of them: one on white blood cells, one on the vessel lining, and one released quickly by activated vessels and platelets. Each one grabs a specific sugar tag on its partner cell.
Read reviewed entryMany human cells cap their surface sugars with a special sugar called sialic acid. The immune system reads these caps as a self label, which helps it avoid attacking the body's own cells.
Read reviewed entrySiglecs are immune-cell receptors that recognize sialic acid, a sugar that caps the ends of glycan chains on healthy human cells. When a siglec touches these sialic acid caps, it usually sends a calming, do-not-attack signal inside the immune cell. In effect, siglecs let immune cells feel for a familiar sugar coat that marks a surface as our own.
Read reviewed entry