Plant lectins and their usage in preparing targeted nanovaccines for cancer immunotherapy

Publication date: Available online 14 February 2020Source: Seminars in Cancer BiologyAuthor(s): Bhavika Gupta, Daizy Sadaria, Vaishnavi U. Warrier, Anuradha Kirtonia, Ravi Kant, Amit Awasthi, Prakash Baligar, Jayanta K. Pal, Eiji Yuba, Gautam Sethi, Manoj Garg, Rajesh Kumar GuptaAbstractPlant lectins, a natural source of glycans with a therapeutic potential may lead to the discovery of new targeted therapies. Glycans extracted from plant lectins are known to act as ligands for C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) that are primarily present on immune cells. Plant-derived glycosylated lectins offer diversity in their N-linked oligosaccharide structures that can serve as a unique source of homogenous and heterogenous glycans. Among the plant lectins-derived glycan motifs, Man9GlcNAc2Asn exhibits high-affinity interactions with CLRs that may resemble glycan motifs of pathogens. Thus, such glycan domains when presented along with antigens complexed with a nanocarrier of choice may bewilder the immune cells and direct antigen cross-presentation - a cytotoxic T lymphocyte immune response mediated by CD8+ T cells. Glycan structure analysis has attracted considerable interest as glycans are looked upon as better therapeutic alternatives than monoclonal antibodies due to their cost-effectiveness, reduced toxicity and side effects, and high specificity. Furthermore, this approach will be useful to understand whether the multivalent glycan presentation on the surface of nanocarriers can overco...
Source: Seminars in Cancer Biology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research