The ability to induce T-cell apoptosis is one mechanism by which tumors evade the immune system, although the molecules involved remain controversial. We found that renal cell carcinoma (RCC)-induced T-cell apoptosis was inhibited by >50% when cocultures were performed with ganglioside-depleted tumor cells, caspase-8-negative lymphocytes, or anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) antibodie...

Autoimmune neuropathies including Guillain-Barré syndrome are frequently associated with anti-GM1 ganglioside antibodies. These are believed to play a pathogenic role and their clearance from the circulation would be predicted to produce therapeutic benefit. This study examines the conditions required for effective immunoadsorption of anti-GM1 antibodies using glycan-conjugated Sepharose as a m...

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the leading fatal infectious diseases. The development of TB vaccines has been recognized as a major public health priority by the World Health Organization. In this study, three candidate antigens, ESAT-6 (6 kDa early secretory antigenic target) and Mtb72F (a fusion polyprotein from two TB antigens, Mtb32 and Mtb39) fused with ch...

Knock-out (KO) mice lacking gangliotetraose gangliosides attributable to disruption of the gene for GM2/GD2 synthase [GalNAcT (UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine:GM3/GD3 -1,4-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase; EC 2.4.1.92)] are revealing key neural functions for the complex gangliosides of brain. This study has found such animals to be highly susceptible to kainic acid (KA)-induced seizures in terms of ...

In polarized cells, signal transduction by cholera toxin (CT) requires apical endocytosis and retrograde transport into Golgi cisternae and perhaps ER (Lencer, W.I., C. Constable, S. Moe, M. Jobling, H.M. Webb, S. Ruston, J.L. Madara, T. Hirst, and R. Holmes. 1995. J. Cell Biol. 131:951-962). In this study, we tested whether CT's apical membrane receptor ganglioside GM1 acts specifically in tox...

Fucosyl GM1 has been reported to be specifically expressed in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cells. However, the genetic basis for the synthesis of fucosyl GM1 has not been investigated. We analyzed the glycosyltransferases responsible for the synthesis of fucosyl GM1 in SCLC cell lines. In four SCLC cell lines expressing fucosyl GM1, both FUT1 and FUT2 mRNAs were detected, indicating that eithe...

The role of receptor binding in the toxicity, immunogenicity, and adjuvanticity of the heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli (LT) was examined by comparing native LT and LT(G33D), a B-subunit receptor binding mutant, with respect to the ability to bind to galactose and to GM1, toxicity on mouse Y-1 adrenal tumor cells, the ability to stimulate adenylate cyclase in Caco-2 cells, enterotoxi...

The endogenous glycolipid GM1 ganglioside plays a critical role in nociceptive neurons in regulating opioid receptor excitatory signaling demonstrated to mediate "paradoxical" morphine hyperalgesia and to contribute to opioid tolerance/dependence. Neuraminidase (sialidase) increases levels of GM1, a monosialoganglioside, in these neurons by enzymatic removal of sialic acid from abundant polysia...

The suggestion that microdomains may function as signaling platforms arose from the presence of growth factor receptors, such as the EGFR, in biochemically isolated lipid raft fractions. To investigate the role of EGFR activation in the organization of lipid rafts we have performed FLIM analyses using putative lipid raft markers such as ganglioside GM1 and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anc...