Synthesis of the fungal metabolite YWA1 and related constructs as tools to study MelLec-mediated immune response to Aspergillus infections

Monica Piras, Ilaria Patruno, Christina Nikolakopoulou, Janet A Willment, Nikki Sloan, Chiara Zanato, Gordon Brown* (Corresponding Author), Matteo Zanda* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

We describe the chemical synthesis of the fungal naphthopyrones YWA1 and fonsecin B, as well as their functionalization with an amine-spacer arm and the conjugation of the resulting molecules to three different functional tags (i.e. biotin, Oregon green, PyMPO). The naphthopyrone-biotin and -PyMPO constructs maintained the ability to bind the Ctype lectin receptor MelLec, whose interaction with immunologically active fungal metabolites (i.e. DHN-melanin and YWA1) is a key step in host recognition and induction of protective immune responses against A. fumigatus. The fluorescent Fonsecin B-PyMPO construct 21 was used to selectively visualize MelLec-expressing cells, thus validating the potential of this strategy for studying the role and functions of MelLec in immunity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6044-6055
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Organic Chemistry
Volume86
Issue number9
Early online date22 Apr 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 May 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Sources
Funding was provided by the Wellcome Trust (102705, 097377), the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank Ian Fraser Flow Cytometry and Microscopy and Histology facilities, University of Aberdeen.

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