Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a severe respiratory disease caused by the fungus Aspergillus Fumigatus and most commonly found in immunocompromised individuals. Currently, about a quarter million cases of IA are diagnosed each year and the mortality rate of the disease is 60-80%. A. fumigatus expresses unique exopolysaccharide galactosylaminoglycans (GAGs) which mediate biofilm-based adherence in the respiratory tract. A. fumigatus mutants that lack GAGs are much less infectious demonstrating that GAGs are an important factor in A. fumigatus’s virulence. Thus GAGs may serve as important targets for therapeutic design and as key diagnostic for IA diagnosis. Here, we discuss our challenges and successes in preparing a series of defined GAG constructs for biological applications.

Progress towards the synthesis of alpha-1,4-linked fungal galactosylaminoglycans

251st National Meeting (2016)

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