2005 Volume 17 Issue 95 Pages 121-130
We describe herein the syntheses, applications and advantages of novel functional sugar chain molecular probes “Glycan-methotrexate (MTX) 1”. Towards a quantitative understanding of glycan related biological events, Glycan-MTX having endoplasmic reticulum (ER) types of N-glycan were synthesized. These probes have strong affinity to dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), thus resulting in Glycan-MTX-DHFR complexes 2 which were available as artificial glycoproteins. Bifunctional glycan-graffted DHFR 3 were also created as novel types of artificial glycoproteins. Since Glycan-MTX and corresponding artificial glycoprotein can be detected readily by MTX-tag, they will be effective for analyses of glycan processing enzymes. In particular, it is important, for comprehensive analyses of ER glycoprotein quality control, that M9GN2-MTX 1b is recognized by folding sensor “UDPGlc: glycoprotein glucosyltrasferase (UGGT)”.
