Medicines, Vol. 10, Pages 15: The Blessed Union of Glycobiology and Immunology: A Marriage That Worked

Medicines, Vol. 10, Pages 15: The Blessed Union of Glycobiology and Immunology: A Marriage That Worked

Medicines doi: 10.3390/medicines10020015

Authors: Jhenifer Santos dos dos Reis Israel Diniz-Lima Marcos André Rodrigues da Costa Santos Pedro Marçal Barcelos Kelli Monteiro da da Costa Raphael do Carmo Valente Lorrane de Souza Chaves Luma Petel de de Campos Ariely Costa dos dos Santos Rafaela Gomes Correia de Correia de Lima Debora Decote-Ricardo Alexandre Morrot Jose Osvaldo Previato Lucia Mendonça-Previato Celio Geraldo Freire-de-Lima Leonardo Marques da Fonseca Leonardo Freire-de-Lima

In this article, we discuss the main aspects regarding the recognition of cell surface glycoconjugates and the immunomodulation of responses against the progression of certain pathologies, such as cancer and infectious diseases. In the first part, we talk about different aspects of glycoconjugates and delve deeper into the importance of N-glycans in cancer immunotherapy. Then, we describe two important lectin families that have been very well studied in the last 20 years. Examples include the sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin (Ig)-like lectins (siglecs), and galectins. Finally, we discuss a topic that needs to be better addressed in the field of glycoimmunology: the impact of oncofetal antigens on the cells of the immune system. New findings in this area are of great importance for advancement, especially in the field of oncology, since it is already known that cellular interactions mediated by carbohydrate–carbohydrate and/or carbohydrate proteins are able to modulate the progression of different types of cancer in events that compromise the functionality of the immune responses.