A Trisialoganglioside Containing a Sialyl α2-6 N-Acetylgalactosamine Residue Is a Cholinergic-Specific Antigen, Chol-1α

Abstract

Cholinergic-specific antigens termed the Chol-1 family have been suggested to be of a ganglioside nature by Richardson et al. (J. Neurochem. 38, 1605-1614, 1982). Two molecular species of polysialogangliosides among bovine brain gangliosides were found to react with anti-Chol-1α antiserum. One of them, Chol-1α-a, was isolated and characterized as a trisialogahglioside containing the gangliotetraose backbone in which 1 mol of sialic acid was attached to each of the reducing end galactose, N-acetylgalactosamine and internal galactose residues, respectively. The chemical structure of Chol-1α-a was determined for the first time, being as follows:
IV³NeuAc III⁶NeuAc II³NeuAc-GgOs₄ Cer.