Exploring the Protein Glycosylation Pathways to Find New TherapeuticAlternatives

Abstract

After protein phosphorylation, glycosylation is the most frequent posttranslational modification found in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, as well as in biological entities such as viruses. The metabolic pathways involved in the elaboration of oligosaccharides and the mechanisms to add them to proteins have been extensively studied; and now this information is starting to be analyzed to find applicability in several fields. Here, we show recent examples of how basic glycobiological information is starting to be applied to solve problems in medicine, such as cancer and viral infections, and their current limitations.