Structure-based design of decoy chemokines as a way to explore the pharmacological potential of glycosaminoglycans.

ABSTRACT: Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are a class of highly negatively charged, unbranched, O-linked polysaccharides that are involved in many diseases. Their role as a protein-binding matrix on cell surfaces has long been recognized, but therapeutic approaches to interfere with protein-GAG interactions have been limited due to the complex chemistry of GAGs, on one hand, and due to the lack of specific antibodies against GAGs, on the other hand. We have developed a protein engineering platform (the so-called CellJammer(®) technology), which enables us to introduce higher GAG-binding affinity into wild-type GAG-binding proteins and to combine this with impaired biological, receptor-binding function. Chemokines are among the prototypic GAG-binding proteins and here we present selected results of our Ce

SUBMITTER: Adage T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3504987 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature