Abstract
Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) constitute a considerable fraction of the glycoconjugates found on cellular membranes and in the extracellular matrix of virtually all mammalian tissues. The essential role of GAG-protein interactions in the regulation of physiological processes has been recognized for decades. However, the underlying molecular basis of these interactions has only emerged since 1990s. The binding specificity of GAGs is encoded in their primary structures, but ultimately depends on how their functional groups are presented to a protein in the three-dimensional space. This review focuses on the application of NMR spectroscopy on the characterization of the GAG-protein interactions. Examples of interpretation of the complex mechanism and characterization of structural motifs involved in the GAG-protein interactions are given. Selected families of GAG-binding proteins investigated using NMR are also described.
Introduction
Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are linear acidic heteropolysaccharides that exist in all mammals and are formed by repeating disaccharide units composed of N-acetyl-hexosamine and hexuronic or hexose (Table 1; ). GAGs can have different sulfation patterns with different charge densities and heterogeneous monosaccharide compositions (). In addition to HA, GAGs are synthesized from the Golgi apparatus in the form of proteoglycans (). According to the disaccharide composition and sulfation pattern, GAGs can be divided into several groups, including heparin/heparan sulfate (HS), chondroitin sulfate (CS)/dermatan sulfate (DS), keratan sulfate (KS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) (). Heparin/HS is composed of repeating disaccharide units of glucosamine (GlcNAc) and glucuronic acid (GlcA) or iduronic acid (IdoA). The initial substrate is [→4)-β-D-GlcA-(1→4)- α-D-GlcNAc-(1→] n. GlcNAc can be substituted by sulfate groups at the amide, 3 or/and 6 hydroxyl groups, and the persulfation can be written as GlcNS3S6S. GlcA can be converted into IdoA by C5 epimerase, and both can be modified by 2-O-sulfation (written as IdoA2S or GlcA2S). CS consists of repeating disaccharide units of glucuronic acid (GlcA) and galactosamine (GalNAc). The initial substrate is [→4)-β-D-GlcA-(1→3)- β-D-GalNAc-(1→] n. CS can undergo sulfation modification similar to heparin except for N-sulfation. However, due to the difference in glycosidic linkage, 3-O-sulfation in heparin becomes 4-O-sulfation. DS is obtained by converting GlcA in CS by C5-epimerase into IdoA. KS consists of repeating disaccharide units of Gal and GlcNAc, both of which can be 6-O-sulfated (). HA is the only GAG that is not modified by sulfation and is not synthesized as proteoglycans. It is composed of repeating disaccharide units of GlcA and GlcNAc. According to the monosaccharide composition and sulfation pattern, GAG disaccharides can have 408 possible compositions ().
TABLE 1
| Glycosaminoglycans | Degree of sulfation per disaccharide unit | Molecular weight range | Tissue distribution | |
| Heparin/Heparan sulfate (HS) | ![]() | Heparin about 1.8∼2.4 | Heparin about 3∼30 kDa | Heparin in liver, lungs and skin; |
| HS about 0.8∼1.8 | HS about 10∼100 kDa | HS was widely distributed on the cell surface. | ||
| Chondroitin sulfate (CS) | ![]() | 0.1–1.3 | 5∼50 kDa | cartilage, tendon, aorta, ligament |
| Dermatan sulfate (DS) | ![]() | < 1 | 15∼40 kDa | skin, blood vessels, heart valves |
| Hyaluronic acid (HA) | ![]() | 0 | 4∼12000 kDa | synovial fluid, vitreous humour, ECM of loose connective tissue |
| Keratan sulfate (KS) | ![]() | < 1 | 5∼25 kDa | KS I in cornea; KS II in cartilage aggregated; KS III in brain tissue |
Structures and tissue distribution of glycosaminoglycans.
As an important component of the extracellular matrix (ECM), GAGs play important roles in the construction of biological systems and the transduction of biological signals (). Signal transduction occurs mainly through the interaction between GAGs and proteins, and these interactions are critical to the biological activity of these proteins. GAGs participate in a variety of physiological processes, including binding, activating and fixing a variety of protein ligands, such as growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, lipoproteins, proteases and their inhibitors, and other ECM components (; ; ). GAGs are also associated with many pathological processes, including degenerative neurological diseases (Alzheimer’s disease), cardiovascular diseases (thrombosis and atherosclerosis) and cancer (; ; ). In the invasion of viruses, GAGs also play roles that cannot be ignored (such as in herpes simplex virus and COVID-19) (). The interaction between GAGs and proteins occurs mainly through electrostatic forces. This puts forward requirements for amino acid sequences in proteins and meets some rules, such as the XBBXBX and XBBBXXBX heparin-binding sequences proposed by Cardin, where B is a basic amino acid and X is any amino acid (). However, long-term research has found that the interaction between GAGs and proteins is not simply determined by the primary structure sequence. A large number of studies have proven that hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces sometimes even play roles far exceeding electrostatic forces in the interaction; a proper tertiary structure of the protein is also required (). This poses more serious and complex problems for studying the interactions between GAGs and proteins.
The interactions between GAGs and proteins are closely related to many factors, including saccharide unit composition, degree of sulfation, sulfation pattern, chain length, monosaccharide ring conformation and glycosidic linkage. The research methods used to characterize the interaction between GAGs and proteins mainly include gel electrophoresis (GE) (), affinity chromatography (AC) (), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) (), biological layer interferometry (BLI) (), isothermal titration (ITC) (), microarray methods (), crystal diffraction methods (X-ray) (), mass spectrometry (MS) (), and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) (). NMR is an insensitive technique compared with other analytical method for the study of interactions between biomolecules. The amount of sample needs to be in milligrams with high purity. In the study of proteins, NMR can characterize a protein with a molecular weight around 20 KD very well. However, proteins need to be isotope labeled by 15N and/or 13C when the molecular weight increases and can be studied up to 100 KD. The cross peaks will become broadening and overlapped severely for larger proteins. Even with the above limitations, NMR is still an irreplaceable technique in the characterization of the biomolecule interactions at the atomic level especially in the case of glycosamionoglycans. Both X-ray diffraction and NMR can provide more precise tertiary structure information, and they do not require sample derivatization and will not cause structural damage to the sample during the experiment. Due to the accuracy and refinement of the data, both types of data can be used for model construction. However, X-ray diffraction studies a crystal in solid state and provide only few conformations of the interaction. While, NMR studies a solution under physiological condition and records dynamic conformations during the whole interaction period. Glycosaminoglycans are very hard to obtain a crystal due to their high flexibilities and exchangeable conformations. The solution NMR can not only show the natural state of the complex, but also detect the change of the complex conformation on the ns-ms time scale (). Compared with the immobilization study of crystal diffraction, solution NMR can also be used for the dynamic study of interactions under physiological conditions.
Nuclear magnetic resonance is widely used to study the conformation of GAGs alone or in complex with proteins (), but the information usually obtained indicates that there are multiple GAGs or complex structures in solution. According to NMR data, GAGs present different folds configurations in solution according to their type and environment (), such as the controversial 3-folds and 4-folds coexisting left-handed helix of HA (), which will directly affect the distribution of acidic groups in space. Generally speaking, the conformational changes of GAGs are mainly caused by two factors, one is the ring conformation of monosaccharides, and the second is the flexibility of the glycosidic linkages (). The conformation of the IdoA residue in heparin, HS and DS is different from that of the other three monosaccharides (GlcNAc, GalNAc, and GlcA). IdoA exist in the conformational equilibrium, with two chairs (1C4 and 4C1) and one shew-boat (2S0), instead of the fixed conformation 4C1 adopted in GalNAc, GlcNAc, or GlcA (). This gives these three different types of GAGs more flexible and various protein binding activities. This balance is affected by chain length, the degree of sulfation of adjacent monosaccharides, and its own 2-O sulfation (). When interacting with proteins, the conformational balance of IdoA will be tilted, such as binding to fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2), fibroblast growth factor-2 receptor (FGF2R), and eosinophil cationic protein (Ecp) (; ). In free state, when the conformational balance ratio is closer to the required binding state, the binding affinity is stronger (). Conversely, when the required conformation of the bound state cannot be achieved, the activity may be completely lost. But even if the protein has a clear tendency to a certain conformation of IdoA, there will generally be a conformational balance. The binding of AT III to heparin requires an absolute 2S0 conformation, but according to the NMR structure information, there is negligible 1C4 conformation in the whole binding process (). Even though IdoA brings more variable binding conformational selectivity, recent studies have shown that GlcA has a better effect on the overall conformation of GAGs (). In order to adapt to the ECM environment, the angle of the glycosidic linkages is allowed to change to a certain extent. The angle of the glycosidic linkages is affected by temperature, and the increase in temperature will result in a transition to the higher energy state (). When interacting with proteins, the glycosidic linkages can adopt proper orientations to meet the structural requirements during binding to proteins, and even cause the kinking of the GAGs polymer chain, thereby further enhancing the binding affinity (). Compared with the obvious conformational equilibrium of IdoA, sometimes GAGs have α/β isomeric equilibrium at the reducing end () and rapid intramolecular hydrogen bond exchange (). Due to the flexibility of GAGs, there may be multiple interaction modes at the same binding domain in the GAG-protein interaction process (). In the interaction between GAGs and proteins, the structure of the proteins is normally changed or stabilized. The weak interaction between GAGs and proteins undergoes on the ns-ms time scale, so the conformation of the protein in the system will change over time. Due to the structural heterogeneity and conformational flexibility of GAGs or the dynamic changes of the complex, it is also very difficult to construct a model of complexes in solution ().
Solution NMR can provide information about conformational changes and kinetic data during interactions between proteins and GAGs (). NMR can also reveal the effects of different temperatures, pH values, salt concentrations, and ligand concentrations on the binding activity. There are three main goals in using NMR to study GAG-protein interactions: the first is to detect the amino acids involved in binding from the perspective of proteins, the second is to analyze the saccharide and its groups involved in binding from the perspective of GAGs, and the third is to observe the conformational changes and kinetic information during binding from the perspective of the interaction. To achieve these three goals, three technologies, chemical shift perturbation (CSP), saturation transfer difference (STD), and exchange-transferred nuclear Overhauser effect (trNOE), are initially used (), while other technologies, such as saturation transfer double difference (STDD) (), paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) (), pseudocontact shifts (PCS) (), and exchange-transferred rotating-frame Overhauser effect (ROE), have been developed to compensate for the shortcomings of the former. The latest pulse sequences have been developed to provide a more detailed and accurate description of the binding process, such as the gradient spectroscopic observation of water ligands (waterLOGSY) () and heteronuclear in-phase single quantum coherence experiment (HISQC) (). In addition, solid-state NMR has also been applied to study interactions involving ligands with low solubility (; ). These techniques are based on four types of data: nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE), scalar coupling (J), residual dipole coupling (RDC) and chemical shift anisotropy (CSA). The purpose of this paper is to introduce some important findings of the application of NMR to the study of the interactions between GAGs and proteins (Table 2) and the review is classified according to the type of GAGs.
TABLE 2
| Type of protein | Name of protein | Type of GAG | participating binding residues and Secondary structure | Affinity (Kd) | References |
| Chemokine | CCL5 | Heparin | 40S loop (R44KNR47), α helix (K55, K56) | 18 μM | |
| CS | 40S loop(R44KNR47), N loop (R17, L19, I15) | 0.25 μM | |||
| CXCL1 | Heparin/HS | N terminus(R8), N-loop (H19, K21),40S turn (K45, R48), β3-strand (R49), C-helix (K60, K61, K65) | 50 μM | ; ; | |
| CS/DS | N terminus(R8), N-loop (H19, K21), 40S turn (R48), | 4 μM | |||
| CXCL2 | Heparin | N-loop (R17, K21), 40S turn (K45), C-helix (K61, K65, K69) | 25 μM | ||
| CXCL5 | Heparin/HS | N-loop (H23, K25), 40S turn (K49), β3 strand (K52), C-helix (Lys64, Lys65, Lys69, Lys76) | 30 μM | ; | |
| CS/DS | N-loop (H23, K25), 40S turn (K49), β3 strand (K52) | 3 μM | |||
| CXCL7 | Heparin | N-loop (H15, K17), β3-strand(R44), C-helix (R54, K57, K61) | — | ||
| CXCL8 | Heparin | N-loop (K15, H18, K20, K23), C -helix (R60, K64, R68), β3-strand (R47), 50S loop (K54) | μM | ||
| CXCL11 | Heparin | C- helix (K57SKQAR62) | — | ||
| CXCL12 | Heparin | C-helix (R12, A40), 20S loop (K24), 40S loop (N46) | μM | ||
| CXCL13 | HS | C-helix (K60, R64, R67, H68), C-loop (K84, R85, R86) | 19 nM | ||
| CXCL14 | Heparin | 10S loop(I12), β2-strand (I36, T37), 40S loop(K54), C -helix (R72), | — | ||
| CS/DS | 10S loop(I12), 40S loop(K54), C -helix (R72) | — | |||
| Growth factor | FGF1 | Heparin | β1–β2 loop (N18), β8–β9 loop (N92), β10–β11 loop (K113), β11 strand (K118), β11–β12 loop (Q127, K128) | nM | |
| FGF2 | Heparin | β1 strand (K27), β1–β2 loop (N28), β8–β9 loop (N102), β10–β11 loop (R121), β11 strand (K126), β11–β12 loop (Q135, K136) | nM | ||
| FGF7 | Heparin | β3 strand (R18), 40s loop(N92), β10(N114), 110s loop(Q115), 120s loop (V120, K124, Q129, K130, T131) | — | ||
| Serpin | AT III | Heparin | N-terminal end (K11, R13), A helix (R46, R47), D helix (K114, K125, R129, R132, K133, K136) | 20 nM | |
| Type II cytokines | IL-10 | Heparin/CS/DS | D helix (K99, R102, R104, R106), 110S loop (R107, K117, K119) | 0.41 mM | |
| IFNγ | Heparin | C-terminal end (D1:K125TGKRKR131, D2:R137GRR140) | 1.63 nM | ||
| Roundabout 1 | HS | 80s loop (K81), 130s loop (V133, H134, G135, R136, K137), βA strand (I167, R169) | — | ||
| Cytokine | Pleiotrophin | CS | C-terminal TSR domain β-sheet (K60, K61, K69, K91, K92, K84, K86, K107) | 90 μM | |
| Link protein | CD44 | HA | β1 strand (K38), 40s loop (R41, Y42), 70s loop (R78, Y79), 90s loop (N100, N101), 150s loop (R150), β9 strand (R154), 160s loop(R162) | μM | |
| TSG-6 | HA | 10s loop (K11, Y12), 40s loop (H45, C47), β3 strand (A49), β3 strand (Y59), 60s loop (V62, K63), 80s loop (Y78, R81) | μM | ||
| Viral pathogen | viral CCL2 | Heparin | 10s loop(R18), 40s loop (K45, R46, R48) | 113 mM | |
| Defensins | Human β-defensin 2 | Heparin/DS | 20s loop(R22RYK25), β3 strand (K39), 40s loop(K40) | 5 mM | |
| RNase A | Eosinophil cationic protein | Heparin | α1 helix (R7, Q14, H15), β1 strand (Q40), loop4(H64), β6 strand(H128) | 15 μM |
GAG binding proteins.
Heparin/Heparan Sulfate
Heparin is the most negatively charged polymer found in nature, and it is also the most studied in the GAG family (). One way to distinguish between heparin and HS is based on whether the mature body is still connected to the core protein. HS will be secreted out of the cell in the form of glycoproteins, most of which are fixed on the cell membrane to mediate many intercellular signaling pathways. Heparin is cleaved by β-endoglucuronidase and is combined with alkaline protease in the form of oligosaccharide chains to be stored in secretory granules (). The binding of heparin to protein mostly relies on its own high electronegativity and the positively charged domains in the protein. Hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces also play important roles in the binding process. Moreover, the binding of heparin and protein is sometimes ion-dependent. For example, the binding of Langerin and heparin is mainly Ca2 + -dependent, although there are additional non-Ca2 + -dependent binding sites (; ; ). HS can be divided into a high-sulfation domain (NS domain) and a low-sulfation domain (NA domain). Heparin essentially contains all possible sulfation modification structures of the NS domain due to the degree of high sulfation. Most of the biological functions of HS are concentrated in the NS domain, although the NA domain is more flexible and more suitable for bending. Due to the early large-scale clinical application of heparin, it was relatively easy to obtain. Early research mainly used heparin as a substitute for HS to carry out functional and structural studies. In approximately the past thirty years, the study of the interaction between heparin and various proteins has become a hot spot, and the gradual maturity of chemical enzyme synthesis has given this field new vitality. Heparin can induce the oligomerization or heteromerization of proteins, which can prevent proteins from being hydrolyzed by protein-degrading enzymes and increase or decrease the possibility of their binding to receptors.
Antithrombin III (AT III) is an absolutely conserved serine protease with two different glycosylation forms (α, β), consisting of three β-sheets (A-C) and nine α-helices (A-I) (). Heparin is a cofactor of the antithrombin-mediated coagulation cascade, and the interaction between them directly affects the activities of factors IXa, Xa and IIa (). Choay, J used chemical enzymatic synthesis of various heparin-related oligosaccharides to determine that the minimum specific sequence required for binding to AT III was the pentasaccharide A1GA2∗IA3 (Figure 1), which is also the only specific recognition sequence for heparin and protein binding found thus far (; ). Although the specific pentasaccharide can meet the requirement of binding to AT III, it can only inhibit the activity of Xa. Inhibiting thrombin activity requires a heparin chain containing more than 16 saccharides, which can form a ternary complex with antithrombin and thrombin (). The interaction between heparin and AT III was described as a three-state, two-step kinetic process (Figure 2; ), which assumed that AT III was in a balance of ‘native unactivated,’ ‘intermediate-activated’ and ‘fully activated’ states under physiological conditions (). First, A1GA2∗ was driven by K125 and K114 to combine with the C- terminus of helix D in “native unactivated” AT III, and the reducing end faced the N-terminus (). Then, accompanied by conformational changes in AT III (helix D extension, reactive center loop exposure, and closure of sheet A) and heparin (IdoA from equilibrium conformation between 1C4 and 2S0 to complete 2S0), each unit in the pentasaccharide was further combined with AT III (). The combined complex can interact with the target protease or enzymatically decompose, and heparin is dissociated accordingly. In the electrostatic binding of heparin and AT III, several sulfate groups of heparin-specific pentasaccharide (N-SO3 for A2∗ and A3, 6-O-SO3 for A1, and 3-O-SO3 for A2∗) and carboxyl groups were irreplaceable ().
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2
Further research using NMR focused on the specific role of each monosaccharide in the binding of heparin to AT III and the effect of extended pentasaccharide on the binding. The ratio of the 2S0 conformation in IdoA in the A1GA2∗IA3 sequence was 20% higher than that in the general heparin sequence (
Heparin plays a key role in the regional aggregation and oligomerization of fibroblast growth factor (FGF), protecting it from denaturation and degradation and inducing its binding to the receptor (FGFR) (
In the study of the FGF-FGFR-heparin binding model (Figure 3), the crystal study gave two hypotheses: a 2:2:1 trans-binding model and a 2:2:2 cis-binding model (
FIGURE 3

Model of FGF-FGFR-heparin complex obtained by X-ray. FGF1-FGFR2-heparin decasaccharide (A) (PDB code 1E0O) and its amplified figure (B), FGF2-FGFR1-heparin decasaccharide (C) (PDB code 1FQ9) and its amplified figure (D). In the carton models, the heparin binding domains are shown in red. In the amplified figures, different kinds of heparin binding domains are shown in different colors according to the amino acid residues.
CXCL12 has six different splicing variants (CXCL12α-φ) in humans and is the only CXC chemokine with differential gene splicing (
Type II cytokines have six secondary structure elements (A-F) to form an α-helical structure, of which A, C, D, and F adopt the classic four-helix topology, while B and E exist as the connecting structure (
Unlike IL-10, the binding domain of IFN-γ with heparin was located at the C-terminus. IFN-γ had four clusters of enriched basic amino acids, but only two C-terminal domains, K125-R131 (D1) and R137-R140 (D2), interacted with heparin (
Chondroitin Sulfate
According to the type of uronic acid and sulfation, common CS can be divided into five categories: nonsulfated chondroitin sulfate (CS-O), 4-O-sulfated chondroitin sulfate (CS-A), 6-O-sulfated chondroitin sulfate (CS-C), 2, 4-O-disulfated chondroitin sulfate (CS-D), and 4,6-O-disulfated chondroitin sulfate (CS-E) (
In the interaction with chemokines, the main function of GAG was to locally aggregate chemokines to increase their binding to G-coupled protein receptors and to form a concentration gradient required for the migration of leukocytes, among which HS was dominant (
FIGURE 4

Complex of CCL5 dimer and CS466. In the carton models, the chondroitin sulfate binding domains are shown in red. In the amplified figures, different kinds of chondroitin sulfate binding domains are shown in different colors according to the amino acid residues.
Midkine (MK) and pleiotropic protein (PTN) form the MK/PTN cytokine family, which is a heparin-binding nerve growth factor. They are highly similar in structure and share more than 50% of the amino acid sequence (
Tumor necrosis factor-stimulated gene-6 (TSG-6) is a classic HA-binding protein that shows different binding modes with CS compared to HA (
Dermatan Sulfate
Although DS was similar in structure to CS, the existence of IdoA gave it unparalleled structural flexibility. For example, in combination with hepatocyte growth factor/scattering factor (HGF/SF), the presence or absence of IdoA was the key to the combination of GAG with HGF/SF (
Sepuru used medium-length GAG to study the interaction with CXCL1 or CXCL5 in the presence of monomers and dimers through CSP experiments (
Decorin binding protein B (DBPB) bound to DS in a different binding mode than DBPA, mainly through the linker between helices 1 and 2, the C-terminal tail, and the alkaline patch (
Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic acid has a different synthesis site (plasma membrane) and a different synthesis form (non-glycoprotein) compared to other GAGs. HA will not undergo further modification; thus, the interaction between it and the protein seems to be structurally specific. The hydrogen bonds and intramolecular hydrogen bonds with water molecules gave it a complex β-sheet structure (
The 14 human link proteins can be divided into three categories (A, B, C) according to their structural composition (
FIGURE 5

HA binding domains (HABD) of TSG-6 [(A) PDB code 1O7B; (B) PDB code 2PF5] and CD44 [(C) PDB code 1POZ; (D) PDB code 1UUH]. In the models, the TSG-6 or CD44 residues participate in binging are shown in red. The HABD of TSG-6 was the only Link module. The link module was structured by two β-sheets and two α-helices. The two β-sheets were composed of four and two β-strands. CD44 extended the β-sheet at the C- and N-termini on the basis of TSG6 (adding four β strands), and the HABD of CD44 was redefined. Unlike the NMR model (C), due to the low charge density caused by the conformational balance, the crystal (D) does not have a secondary structure in residues 62-73.
Kahmann proposed that the binding of Link-TSG-6 and HA was concentrated in the β4/β5 loop. The association was accompanied by the rearrangement of C47 and C68 disulfide bonds (
In the 2014 study, HA and hybrid HA of different lengths were used to study the interaction with Link-TSG-6 (
The HABD in CD44 was mainly located in the link module, C-terminal extension and α1-helix. Two N-linked glycosylation sites (N25 and N100) were also located in the HABD (
FIGURE 6

The HA-binding site in mouse CD44. [(A) PDB code 2JCQ; (C) PDB code 2JCR] The ribbon diagram of mouse CD44 (type A and B complex). (B,D) Surface representation of the HA binding site in the type A and B crystal complex.
In terms of RHAMM, two amino acid clusters were mainly involved in binding with HA: the first was the proposed BX7B structure (K531-K541), and the second was K553-K562 (
Kertan Sulfate
Kertan sulfate is the only GAG without any acidic uronic acid residue, and its interaction with proteins mainly depends on structural characteristics and sulfation modification. KS is mainly distributed in the cornea and cartilage tissue and is divided into three categories (I-III) according to the distribution and connection with glycoproteins (
Galectin 3 (Gal-3) seems to be one of KS’s most tacit partners, and its distribution is extremely close to that of KS. The interaction between full-length Gal-3 and KS has been studied using HSQC; the disturbance was found to be in the β1, β3, β4, β5, β6, and β10 strands, and the β10 strand was the most important strand. The binding domain can be on the S- and F-faces in Gal-3. When the N-terminal tail of Gal-3 was truncated, KS interaction on the S-face became more obvious. The presence of other negatively charged regions did not affect the binding between KS and the Gal-3 S-face according to MD data. In the binding state, the conformations of the F-face and the N-terminal tail were changed. The binding was mainly concentrated on the left side of the S-face, which facilitated its combination with other proteins or heteropolymerization with other galectins. However, the pulse field gradient NMR data showed that KS did not induce oligomerization of Gal-3. Desulfated KS had far less affinity than KS, and the chemical shift disturbances on the F-face and N-terminal tail were greatly reduced.
Conclusion
Glycosaminoglycans, as common glycoproteins in biological systems, are involved in many physiological and pathological processes. The study of their structure and interaction with proteins has received extensive attention, but the study of molecular perspectives is only the tip of the iceberg. This not only is due to the delay of carbohydrate research but is also related to the limitations of technology. The information produced by NMR is incomparable to all other technologies. For example, it can provide information about the binding affinity constant, on/off chemical exchange rate, binding site and atomic information, but high-precision research is more demanding for technology. In particular, regarding the special existence of GAG, its highly complex structure not only endows it with rich biological functions but also brings incomparable difficulties for research. The study of the interactions between GAG and proteins using NMR is based on complete structural characterizations of GAG and/or proteins, which face huge obstacles. Biosynthesis carriers of GAG are difficult to find, while chemical and enzymatic syntheses are limited to a few scientists. This in turn makes it difficult to obtain isotope-labeled GAG. Because the binding of GAG and protein has obvious multibinding characteristics, it will cause oligomerization and even precipitation. The application of NMR technology is mainly limited by several factors, including the length of the oligosaccharides, the molecular weight of the proteins, and the concentration range and stability of the complex. However, with the renewal and iteration of technology, the rise of high magnetic flux nuclear magnetic spectrometry and enzymatic chemical synthesis has injected a steady stream of vitality into interaction research. The study of the interaction between GAG and proteins is helpful for understanding various physiological and pathological mechanisms and has a huge impetus for drug development.
Statements
Author contributions
CB and LJ participated in preparation, creation, initial draft writing and review of this article. Both authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
glycosaminoglycans, proteins, interaction, NMR, conformation
Citation
Bu C and Jin L (2021) NMR Characterization of the Interactions Between Glycosaminoglycans and Proteins. Front. Mol. Biosci. 8:646808. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.646808
Received
28 December 2020
Accepted
24 February 2021
Published
16 March 2021
Volume
8 - 2021
Edited by
Fuming Zhang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States
Reviewed by
Xiaojun Sun, University of Jinan, China; Yasuteru Shigeta, University of Tsukuba, Japan
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© 2021 Bu and Jin.
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*Correspondence: Lan Jin, lanjin@sdu.edu.cn
This article was submitted to Molecular Recognition, a section of the journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
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