Essentials of Glycobiology


Book Description

Sugar chains (glycans) are often attached to proteins and lipids and have multiple roles in the organization and function of all organisms. "Essentials of Glycobiology" describes their biogenesis and function and offers a useful gateway to the understanding of glycans.







Introduction to Glycobiology


Book Description

Introduction to Glycobiology reveals the true impact of the sugars on biological systems, explaining their function at the molecular, cellular, and organismal level and their clinical relevance.




Glycosaminoglycans and Proteoglycans


Book Description

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Glycosaminoglycans and Proteoglycans" that was published in Pharmaceuticals




Antibody Glycosylation


Book Description

This book summarizes recent advances in antibody glycosylation research. Covering major topics relevant for immunoglobulin glycosylation - analytical methods, biosynthesis and regulation, modulation of effector functions - it provides new perspectives for research and development in the field of therapeutic antibodies, biomarkers, vaccinations, and immunotherapy. Glycans attached to both variable and constant regions of antibodies are known to affect the antibody conformation, stability, and effector functions. Although it focuses on immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most explored antibody in this context, and unravels the natural phenomena resulting from the mixture of IgG glycovariants present in the human body, the book also discusses other classes of human immunoglobulins, as well as immunoglobulins produced in other species and production systems. Further, it reviews the glycoanalytical methods applied to antibodies and addresses a range of less commonly explored topics, such as automatization and bioinformatics aspects of high-throughput antibody glycosylation analysis. Lastly, the book highlights application areas ranging from the ones already benefitting from antibody glycoengineering (such as monoclonal antibody production), to those still in the research stages (such as exploration of antibody glycosylation as a clinical or biological age biomarker), and the potential use of antibody glycosylation in the optimization of vaccine production and immunization protocols. Summarizing the current knowledge on the broad topic of antibody glycosylation and its therapeutic and biomarker potential, this book will appeal to a wide biomedical readership in academia and industry alike. Chapter 4 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.




Introduction to Proteins


Book Description

Introduction to Proteins provides a comprehensive and state-of-the-art introduction to the structure, function, and motion of proteins for students, faculty, and researchers at all levels. The book covers proteins and enzymes across a wide range of contexts and applications, including medical disorders, drugs, toxins, chemical warfare, and animal behavior. Each chapter includes a Summary, Exercies, and References. New features in the thoroughly-updated second edition include: A brand-new chapter on enzymatic catalysis, describing enzyme biochemistry, classification, kinetics, thermodynamics, mechanisms, and applications in medicine and other industries. These are accompanied by multiple animations of biochemical reactions and mechanisms, accessible via embedded QR codes (which can be viewed by smartphones) An in-depth discussion of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) A wider-scale description of biochemical and biophysical methods for studying proteins, including fully accessible internet-based resources, such as databases and algorithms Animations of protein dynamics and conformational changes, accessible via embedded QR codes Additional features Extensive discussion of the energetics of protein folding, stability and interactions A comprehensive view of membrane proteins, with emphasis on structure-function relationship Coverage of intrinsically unstructured proteins, providing a complete, realistic view of the proteome and its underlying functions Exploration of industrial applications of protein engineering and rational drug design Each chapter includes a Summary, Exercies, and References Approximately 300 color images Downloadable solutions manual available at www.crcpress.com For more information, including all presentations, tables, animations, and exercises, as well as a complete teaching course on proteins' structure and function, please visit the author's website: http://ibis.tau.ac.il/wiki/nir_bental/index.php/Introduction_to_Proteins_Book. Praise for the first edition "This book captures, in a very accessible way, a growing body of literature on the structure, function and motion of proteins. This is a superb publication that would be very useful to undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and instructors involved in structural biology or biophysics courses or in research on protein structure-function relationships." --David Sheehan, ChemBioChem, 2011 "Introduction to Proteins is an excellent, state-of-the-art choice for students, faculty, or researchers needing a monograph on protein structure. This is an immensely informative, thoroughly researched, up-to-date text, with broad coverage and remarkable depth. Introduction to Proteins would provide an excellent basis for an upper-level or graduate course on protein structure, and a valuable addition to the libraries of professionals interested in this centrally important field." --Eric Martz, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 2012




GPI Membrane Anchors


Book Description

GPI Membrane Anchors reviews major advances in our understanding of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) membrane anchors. The book examines the GPI structure and its originality as an anchoring device, its ubiquitous distribution, the main steps of its biosynthetic pathway, and the elegant means by which a protein signals for GPI attachment. It also presents evidence for the uniqueness of GPI as a tag in intracellular traffic and as a mediator of transmembrane signaling. This volume is organized into 20 chapters and begins with a discussion of the structural requirements of a nascent protein for processing to a PI-G anchored form, with emphasis on experiments on intact cells and cell-free systems. It then turns to the mechanisms underlying signal transduction by GPI-anchored membrane proteins, the LY-6 superfamily of GPI-anchored molecules, and glycosylated-phosphatidylinositols as virulence factors in Leishmania. The reader is also introduced to the molecular biology of GPI-anchored border hydrolases, the role of GPIs and their inositolglycan derivatives in the mediation of insulin and growth factor function, and biosynthesis and cellular localization of GPI-modified glycoproteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. An account of electrospray mass spectrometry of a C-terminal peptide purified from the scrapie isoform of the scrapie prion protein is also given. The book concludes with a chapter on GPI-anchored recognition molecules that function in axonal fasciculation, growth, and guidance in the nervous system. This book is a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of cell biology and biochemistry.




The Glycome


Book Description

This volume provides a comprehensive understanding of the enigmatic identity of the glycome, a complex but important area of research that has been largely ignored due to its complexity. The authors thoroughly deal with almost all aspects of the glycome, i.e., elucidation of the glycan identity enigma and its role in regulation of the cellular process, and in disease etiology. The book bridges the knowledge gap in understanding the glycome, from being a cell signature to its applications in disease etiology. In addition, it details many of the major insights regarding the possible role of the glycome in various diseases as a therapeutic marker. The book systematically covers the major aspects of the glycome, including the significance of substituting the diverse monosaccharide units to glycoproteins, the role of glycans in disease pathologies, and the challenges and advances in glycobiology. The authors stress the significance and huge encoding power of carbohydrates as well as provide helpful insights in framing the bigger picture. The Glycome: Understanding the Diversity and Complexity of Glycobiology details state-of-the-art developments and emerging challenges of glycome biology, which are going to be key areas of future research, not only in the glycobiology field but also in pharmaceutics.




Denial


Book Description

The history of science abounds with momentous theories that disrupted conventional wisdom and yet were eventually proven true. Ajit Varki and Danny Brower's "Mind over Reality" theory is poised to be one such idea-a concept that runs counter to commonly-held notions about human evolution but that may hold the key to understanding why humans evolved as we did, leaving all other related species far behind. At a chance meeting in 2005, Brower, a geneticist, posed an unusual idea to Varki that he believed could explain the origins of human uniqueness among the world's species: Why is there no humanlike elephant or humanlike dolphin, despite millions of years of evolutionary opportunity? Why is it that humans alone can understand the minds of others? Haunted by their encounter, Varki tried years later to contact Brower only to discover that he had died unexpectedly. Inspired by an incomplete manuscript Brower left behind, Denial presents a radical new theory on the origins of our species. It was not, the authors argue, a biological leap that set humanity apart from other species, but a psychological one: namely, the uniquely human ability to deny reality in the face of inarguable evidence-including the willful ignorance of our own inevitable deaths. The awareness of our own mortality could have caused anxieties that resulted in our avoiding the risks of competing to procreate-an evolutionary dead-end. Humans therefore needed to evolve a mechanism for overcoming this hurdle: the denial of reality. As a consequence of this evolutionary quirk we now deny any aspects of reality that are not to our liking-we smoke cigarettes, eat unhealthy foods, and avoid exercise, knowing these habits are a prescription for an early death. And so what has worked to establish our species could be our undoing if we continue to deny the consequences of unrealistic approaches to everything from personal health to financial risk-taking to climate change. On the other hand reality-denial affords us many valuable attributes, such as optimism, confidence, and courage in the face of long odds. Presented in homage to Brower's original thinking, Denial offers a powerful warning about the dangers inherent in our remarkable ability to ignore reality-a gift that will either lead to our downfall, or continue to be our greatest asset.




Mass Spectrometry-Based Chemical Proteomics


Book Description

PROVIDES STRATEGIES AND CONCEPTS FOR UNDERSTANDING CHEMICAL PROTEOMICS, AND ANALYZING PROTEIN FUNCTIONS, MODIFICATIONS, AND INTERACTIONS—EMPHASIZING MASS SPECTROMETRY THROUGHOUT Covering mass spectrometry for chemical proteomics, this book helps readers understand analytical strategies behind protein functions, their modifications and interactions, and applications in drug discovery. It provides a basic overview and presents concepts in chemical proteomics through three angles: Strategies, Technical Advances, and Applications. Chapters cover those many technical advances and applications in drug discovery, from target identification to validation and potential treatments. The first section of Mass Spectrometry-Based Chemical Proteomics starts by reviewing basic methods and recent advances in mass spectrometry for proteomics, including shotgun proteomics, quantitative proteomics, and data analyses. The next section covers a variety of techniques and strategies coupling chemical probes to MS-based proteomics to provide functional insights into the proteome. In the last section, it focuses on using chemical strategies to study protein post-translational modifications and high-order structures. Summarizes chemical proteomics, up-to-date concepts, analysis, and target validation Covers fundamentals and strategies, including the profiling of enzyme activities and protein-drug interactions Explains technical advances in the field and describes on shotgun proteomics, quantitative proteomics, and corresponding methods of software and database usage for proteomics Includes a wide variety of applications in drug discovery, from kinase inhibitors and intracellular drug targets to the chemoproteomics analysis of natural products Addresses an important tool in small molecule drug discovery, appealing to both academia and the pharmaceutical industry Mass Spectrometry-Based Chemical Proteomics is an excellent source of information for readers in both academia and industry in a variety of fields, including pharmaceutical sciences, drug discovery, molecular biology, bioinformatics, and analytical sciences.