Browsing by Author "Tu, Zhijay"

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Dissecting the Structure-Activity Relationship of Galectin-Ligand Interactions
(2018-02-01)
Chan, Yi-Chen
;
Lin, Hsien-Ya
;
Tu, Zhijay
;
Kuo, Yen-Hsi
;
Hsu, Shang-Te Danny
Galectins are -galactoside-binding proteins. As carbohydrate-binding proteins, they participate in intracellular trafficking, cell adhesion, and cell-cell signaling. Accumulating evidence indicates that they play a pivotal role in numerous physiological and pathological activities, such as the regulation on cancer progression, inflammation, immune response, and bacterial and viral infections. Galectins have drawn much attention as targets for therapeutic interventions. Several molecules have been developed as galectin inhibitors. In particular, TD139, a thiodigalactoside derivative, is currently examined in clinical trials for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Herein, we provide an in-depth review on the development of galectin inhibitors, aiming at the dissection of the structure-activity relationship to demonstrate how inhibitors interact with galectin(s). We especially integrate the structural information established by X-ray crystallography with several biophysical methods to offer, not only in-depth understanding at the molecular level, but also insights to tackle the existing challenges.
Metabolic labelling of cholesteryl glucosides in Helicobacter pylori reveals how the uptake of human lipids enhances bacterial virulence
(2016-01-01)
Jan, Hau-Ming
;
Chen, Yi-Chi
;
Shih, Yu-Yin
;
Huang, Yu-Chen
;
Tu, Zhijay
Helicobacter pylori infects approximately half of the human population and is the main cause of various gastric diseases. This pathogen is auxotrophic for cholesterol, which it converts upon uptake to various cholesteryl alpha-glucoside derivatives, including cholesteryl 6'-acyl and 6'-phosphatidyl alpha-glucosides (CAGs and CPGs). Owing to a lack of sensitive analytical methods, it is not known if CAGs and CPGs play distinct physiological roles or how the acyl chain component affects function. Herein we established a metabolite-labelling method for characterising these derivatives qualitatively and quantitatively with a femtomolar detection limit. The development generated an MS/MS database of CGds, allowing for profiling of all the cholesterol-derived metabolites. The subsequent analysis led to the unprecedented information that these bacteria acquire phospholipids from the membrane of epithelial cells for CAG biosynthesis. The resulting increase in longer or/and unsaturated CAG acyl chains helps to promote lipid raft formation and thus delivery of the virulence factor CagA into the host cell, supporting the idea that the host/pathogen interplay enhances bacterial virulence. These findings demonstrate an important connection between the chain length of CAGs and the bacterial pathogenicity.