Glycans on the surface of cells are important mediators of several molecular recognition processes. For instance, glycoconjugates containing sialic acid have a role in leukocyte homing, viral invasion, and bacterial infection. The development of illness is linked to aberrant glycosylation. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the dynamic changes in glycan production and structures in order to improve illness detection and therapies as well as our understanding of glycobiology. Recently, the metabolic glycan labeling technique has become a promising method for imaging and identifying glycans on living cells and in living organisms. In this case, target cells are given artificial sugars in a way that is dependent on cell surface receptors through the use of ligand-targeted liposomes for cell-specific metabolic glycan labeling. This approach involves encapsulating artificial sugars, including azido sugars, in liposomes that are targeted by ligands.
Fig.1 Schematic of the cell-specific metabolic glycan labeling using ligand-targeted liposomal delivery. (Xie, et al., 2012)
The cell surface is a remarkably diverse environment, showcasing various proteins, glycans, and lipids. Given its crucial role in cell function, CD BioGlyco provides state-of-the-art services in engineering the cell membrane with biomaterials, proteins, fluorophores, glycans, and nanoparticles. This opens up exciting possibilities for applications in drug delivery, cell-based therapeutics research, transfusion, tissue engineering, and fundamental cell biology exploration. CD BioGlyco has developed fluorophore-based, GAG-based, and hydrophobic membrane Insertion-based cell surface glycoengineering services. And we are still working on developing more cell surface glycoengineering technologies to offer more custom solutions for our clients.
Fluorophore-based Liposome Fusion Cell Surface Glycoengineering Service
This service may be used to do imaging or research on cell surfaces. Since phosphatidylethanolamine lipids constitute a plentiful and organic part of the membrane of neurons, a range of cell types, including primary neurons, have been labeled with DOPE-based liposomes that include a lipid-functionalized fluorophore.
GAGs-based Liposome Fusion Cell Surface Glycoengineering Service
This service offers a unique way to regulate important cellular activities by presenting certain GAG structures on cell surfaces. A liposomal fusion approach is used to show particular sulfated GAG complexes on cell surfaces.
Hydrophobic Membrane Insertion-based Cell Surface Glycoengineering Service
Molecules with lipid tails and cholesterol anchors can easily slip through the cell membrane. Hydrophobic insertion is less hazardous to cells than covalent alteration because it prevents cross-linking and permanent loss of protein function.
Moreover, CD BioGlyco also provides other cell surface glycoengineering services based on different technologies. We aim to establish a high-quality one-stop Glycoengineering Platform for Cell Surface for our clients and we have developed several custom solutions to help our clients study the optional application of cell surface glycoengineering. Here are the relevant services.
Metabolic Pathway-based Cell Surface Glycoengineering Service
Metabolic Glycoengineering (MGE)
Metabolic Oligosaccharide Engineering (MOE)
Chemoenzymatic Glycoengineering (CGE)
Liposome fusion-based cell surface glycoengineering has several valuable applications in the field of glycobiology, including drug delivery, biomedical imaging, cell-cell interactions, and so on. We believe that liposome fusion-based cell surface glycoengineering services from CD BioGlyco offer good technology support for our clients to help them study glycobiology.
Fig.2 Applications of liposome fusion. (CD BioGlyco)
CD BioGlyco has established a well-equipped glycoengineering platform for cell surface glycoengineering services and we have a professional R&D team to offer our clients custom cell surface glycoengineering solutions. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in our services and would like to discuss detailed information.
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