Letter abstract


Nature Chemical Biology 3, 559 - 564 (2007)
Published online: 29 July 2007 | doi:10.1038/nchembio.2007.19

Synthesis and evaluation of stimulatory properties of Sphingomonadaceae glycolipids

Xiangtian Long1,5, Shenglou Deng1,5, Jochen Mattner2, Zhuo Zang1, Dapeng Zhou3, Nathan McNary1, Randal D Goff1, Luc Teyton4, Albert Bendelac2 & Paul B Savage1

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Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) from the Sphingomonadaceae family of bacteria have been reported to be potent stimulators of natural killer T cells. These glycolipids include mono-, tri- and tetraglycosylceramides. Here we have prepared the GSL-1 to GSL-4 series of glycolipids and tested their abilities to stimulate natural killer T cells. Among these glycolipids, only GSL-1 (1) is a potent stimulator. Using a series of synthetic diglycosylceramides, we show that oligoglycosylceramides from Sphingomonadaceae are not effectively truncated to GSL-1 in lysosomes in antigen-presenting cells, possibly because the higher-order GSLs are poor substrates for lysosomal acyltransfer enzymes.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, C100 BNSN, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602, USA.
  2. Department of Pathology, 57 East 7th Street, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
  3. Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 7455 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas 77054, USA.
  4. Immunology Department, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
  5. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to: Paul B Savage1 e-mail: paul_savage@byu.edu



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