From "Serum Sickness" to "Xenosialitis": Past, Present, and Future Significance of the Non-human Sialic Acid Neu5Gc.

ABSTRACT: The description of "serum sickness" more than a century ago in humans transfused with animal sera eventually led to identification of a class of human antibodies directed against glycans terminating in the common mammalian sialic acid N-Glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), hereafter called "Neu5Gc-glycans." The detection of such glycans in malignant and fetal human tissues initially raised the possibility that it was an oncofetal antigen. However, "serum sickness" antibodies were also noted in various human disease states. These findings spurred further research on Neu5Gc, and the discovery that it is not synthesized in the human body due to a human-lineage specific genetic mutation in the enzyme CMAH. However, with more sensitive techniques Neu5Gc-glycans were detected in small

SUBMITTER: Dhar C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6481270 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature