REVIEW: Exploiting Natural Anti-carbohydrate Antibodies for Therapeutic Purposes

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D. Bello-Gil¹ and R. Manez^1,2*

¹Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Gran Via de l’Hospitalet 199, 08908 Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain

²Bellvitge University Hospital, Feixa Llarga s/n 08907, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain; E-mail: rmanez@bellvitgehospital.cat

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received March 4, 2015; Revision received April 13, 2015

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Natural anti-carbohydrate antibodies (NAbC) are antibodies that target glycans and are continuously produced without apparent external antigen stimulation. Clinically, NAbC are recognized by the adverse reactions to ABO mismatched blood transfusions or organ transplantation and the rejection of xenografts. These clinical effects do not reflect the biological functions of NAbC. However, they launch the possibility of using NAbC for boosting immunity in different clinical settings by means of: 1) expression of glycan antigens in elements that do not hold them to allow the binding and reactivity of existing NAbC; 2) removal of existing NAbC; 3) manipulation of the glycosylation pattern of NAbC.

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KEY WORDS: natural antibodies, anti-carbohydrate antibodies, anti-blood group antibodies, anti-galactose α1,3 galactose antibodies

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297915070044

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