The human body is covered with bacteria. It has been estimated that for every human cell there are ten bacterial cells living in or on the human body. The bacteria that occupy the human body, which do not cause harm are called commensal bacteria. These bacteria normally provide essential functions for the human body, for example they aid in digestion. However, chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s disease are thought to arise from an inappropriate response to commensal bacteria. Chronic inflammation has also been shown to lead to a variety of types of cancers including gastric, colon, and lung. The immune system’s interaction with bacteria plays a pivotal role in these diseases and in order to develop novel therapies for these diseases, better tools are needed to dissect how the immune system interacts with the microbiome.<br/>The field of bacterial activation of the innate immune system is limited to a few select synthetic tools derived from bacterial peptidoglycan. The bacteria are believed to communicate to the human cell through the use of specific carbohydrate polymers. The synthesis of these polymers is extremely demanding and thus the probes are scarce. My research laboratory has focused on developing a combination of chemical and enzymatic synthesis to prepare bacterial cell wall fragments from a number of different types of bacteria. These fragments are then used to investigate how different strains of bacteria initiate an immune response. Here we will discuss our progress in using these tools to probe innate immune recognition pathways.

Bacterial peptidoglycan fragments to investigate innate immune activation

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.