engleski

Juvenile chronic arthritis is associated with a decreased activity of lectins that bind mannose and N-acetylgalactosamine

Over a half of all known proteins contain covalently linked oligosaccharide structures that presumably perform some specific physiological functions. Due to the lack of adequate methods, until recently only little was known about the role of oligosaccharide structures of glycoconjugates, but in the recent years it was convincingly demonstrated that at least some of these structures are of utmost importance. One of the principal ways how oligosaccharides perform their functions is through interactions with their specific receptors named lectins. Recently we have developed glycoprobes, a novel set of compounds that enable direct measurement of lectin activity in complex biological samples. Using this method we have analyzed lectins that bind to mannose and N-acetylgalactosamine in sera of patients suffering from juvenile chronic arthritis. We have determined that juvenile chronic arthritis is associated with highly significant decrease in the activity of several specific lectins, while the activity of some other lectins did not change.

juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; lectins; glycoprobe

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