Protozoa are the causative agents of a number of diseases that affect humans and mammalian animals. Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and various forms of leishmaniasis are caused by different species of Leishmania. These parasites synthesize low molecular mass glycoinositol phospholipids (GIPLs), which are embedded in their cell membranes. GIPL-2 and GIPL-3 of L. major and L. mexicana have αGalp-(1,3)-βGalf and αGalp-(1,6)-αGalp-(1,3)-βGalf terminal moieties, respectively. Since the GIPL-derived αGalp and βGalf-containing saccharides are foreign to humans, they are expected to be highly immunogenic, and should therefore be exploitable as biomarkers for the diagnosis and follow-up of leishmaniasis and possibly Chagas disease via chemiluminescent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (CL-ELISA). Here we present the multiple-step chemical syntheses of αGalp- and βGalf-containing oligosaccharide partial structures of these GIPLs and their conjugation to bovine serum albumin, which produces neoglycoproteins for their use in a glycoarray.

Synthesis of neoglycoproteins for the potential diagnosis and follow-up of leishmaniasis and Chagas disease

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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