Complex carbohydrates: structure, function and vaccines

碳水化合物是细菌、植物和哺乳动物细胞的主要成分。我们的研究计划集中在这种复杂碳水化合物的精细结构特征和功能作用，以及在药物和疫苗制剂中使用这些生物体特有的碳水化合物。我们的注意力主要集中在利用化学方法和分析技术，如质谱学和核磁共振谱来破译感染性细菌表达的复杂的多糖结构。我们有兴趣继续进行医学上重要细菌的研究，例如最近发现的中耳炎异种球菌，它是人类中耳感染的罪魁祸首。我们还致力于研究与健康相关的植物(如圣约翰草)的代谢物和多糖的化学结构和免疫化学性质，以及参与胚胎发生的哺乳动物细胞的化学结构和免疫化学性质。现在公认的是，多糖能够激发免疫系统提高多糖特异性抗体，并在整体上增强免疫系统的防御机制。因此，我们的最终研究目标之一是将这些新的结构定义的碳水化合物用作预防性糖结合疫苗和治疗药物的保护性抗原。

Carbohydrates are a major component of bacteria, plants and mammalian cells. Our research program focuses on the fine structural characterization and functional role of such complex carbohydrates, and in the use of these organism-specific carbohydrates in drug and vaccine preparations. The majority of our attention is directed at deciphering the complex polysaccharide structures expressed by infectious bacteria by using chemical methods and analytical techniques, such as, mass-spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We are interested in pursuing the study of medically important bacteria, for example, the recently discovered Alloiococcus otitidis, which is responsible for middle-ear infections in humans. We are also engaged in studying the chemical structures and immunochemical properties of metabolites and polysaccharides from health-related plants, such as, St. John's Wort, and of mammalian cells involved in embryogenesis. It is now well accepted that polysaccharides are capable of eliciting the immune system to raise polysaccharide-specific antibodies and in enhancing the immune systems' defensive mechanism as a whole. Hence, one of our ultimate research objectives is aimed at employing these novel structurally-defined carbohydrates as protective antigens in prophylactic glycoconjugate vaccines and therapeutic drugs.