Visualization and understanding of sialylation mechanisms through new strategies in chemical biology

Les glycannes, présents chez tous les êtres vivants forment une des grandes classes de biomolécules. À l’interface de la chimie organique et de la biologie, la chemobiologie a permis des avancées considérables comme le marquage métabolique des glycannes. Cette stratégie consiste en l’usage d’un monosaccharide modifié qui pourra entrer dans la cellule et emprunter ses voies métaboliques. Après incorporation, le rapporteur chimique est détecté de manière spécifique grâce à des réactions de ligation bioorthogonale entre le groupement incorporé et une sonde portant un groupement complémentaire. Cette thèse a pour but l’étude des acides sialiques selon deux axes : (i) le développement d’une stratégie originale de marquage, utilisant de manière complémentaire deux monosaccharides modifiés, apportant de nouvelles informations sur les modes d’entrée de l’acide sialique exogène, mais aussi de son précurseur, la N-acétylmannosamine. (ii) l’introduction de manière exogène, d’acides sialiques modifiés mais cette fois avec des enzymes (sialyltransférases) qui tranfèrent l’acide sialique préalablement activé sur des glycoprotéines solubles ou membranaires. À l’aide de suivis in situ par RMN 31P, une méthode versatile, simple et robuste a été développée pour la production d’acides sialiques activés utilisables immédiatement par des sialyltransférases recombinantes. Ces outils ont été appliqués à l’étude et à la caractérisation de différentes enzymes. Au-delà du développement d’outils, ces travaux de thèse ont permis l’application de nouvelles méthodes et stratégies à l’étude de mécanismes cellulaires, de réactions enzymatiques ou encore de déficiences de glycosylation.Glycans are essential biomolecules found in every living system. The recent advent of chemical biology paved the way for great advances in glycobiology such as metabolic glycan engineering (MGE). This strategy consists in the use of a modified monosaccharide, the chemical reporter, which can enter the cell and hijack the metabolic pathway. Upon incorporation, the introduced chemical reporter detection is achieved in a specific manner through bioorthogonal ligation. The present work aims to study sialic acids, which are often found at the outermost position of glycan chains:(i) we developed an original MGE-based strategy, using two different chemical reporters, each one being an analog of products from different steps of the biosynthetic pathway. This sequential bioorthogonal dual strategy (SBDS) has provided new insights in the entry mechanisms of both sialic acid and its precursor N-acetylmannosamine. (ii) we introduced chemically modified sialic acids, but, this time in an exo-enzymatic way, with specific glycosyltransferases (sialyltransferases) onto soluble glycoproteins or living cells. Before being transferred, sialic acids need to be activated as CMP-sialic acids which are very unstable and prone to decomposition. 31P NMR was used to optimize the production of ready-to-use CMP-sialic acids providing a versatile, simple and reproducible procedure. Natural and/or unnatural CMP-sialic acids have then proven to be great tools for the study and characterization of different enzymes. More than just a tool-box, this work describes some direct applications of our chemical tools to unravel cellular pathways, enzymatic reactions, or even biosynthesis defects

Potential influence of microstructural morphology on the viscoplastic flow of two-phase polycrystals

Most recent homogenisation theories for nonlinear behaviour combine a linearisation procedure with an appropriate linear scale transition scheme. While the definition of improved linearisation formulations is currently the subject of active research, the used linear models are often standard ones, namely the classical self-consistent (SC) scheme when polycrystals are considered. We investigate here the potential influence of the phase distribution in the case of a two-phase polycrystal with hard and soft grains. Various linear models are combined with Suquet-Ponte Castañeda's variational formulation for anisotropic media, including two-scale transition models, and are compared with SC predictions. Phase distribution effects are significant only when the contrast of critical resolved shear stresses is above about 3

Homogénéisation variationnelle pour l'analyse des déformations à chaud d'aciers biphasés

La définition de processus d’élaboration des matériaux repose sur une approche principalement empirique quipeut s’avérer longue et coûteuse. Afin d’améliorer cette démarche, un outil numérique de prédiction, basé surl’homogénéisation variationnelle, permettant d’avoir une idée du comportement mécanique et de la configurationcristallographique au cours du formage a été développé ces dernières années. Ce modèle est étendu afin de prendre en compte l’évolution de polycristaux comprenant deux phases cristallographiques distinctes et ainsi de se rapprocher de certains matériaux utilisés en pratique. Un premier exemple est traité ici et comparé à des modélisations plus classiques

Chemical glycomics enrichment: imaging the recycling of sialic acid in living cells

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A novel C-domain-dependent inhibition of the rainbow trout CMP-sialic acid synthetase activity by CMP-deaminoneuraminic acid

International audienceThe CMP-sialic acid synthetase (CSS) activates free sialic acid (Sia) to CMP-Sia using CTP, and is prerequisite for the sialylation of cell surface glycoconjugates. The vertebrate CSS consists of two domains, a catalytic N-domain and a non-catalytic C-domain. Although the C-domain is not required for the CSS enzyme to synthesize CMP-Sia, its involvement in the catalytic activity remains unknown. First, the real-time monitoring of CSS-catalyzed reaction was performed by P NMR using the rainbow trout CSS (rtCSS). While a rtCSS lacking the C-domain (rtCSS-N) similarly activated both deaminoneuraminic acid (Kdn) and N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac), the full-length rtCSS (rtCSS-FL) did not activate Kdn as efficiently as Neu5Ac. These results suggest that the C-domain of rtCSS affects the enzymatic activity, when Kdn was used as a substrate. Second, the enzymatic activity of rtCSS-FL and rtCSS-N was measured under various concentrations of CMP-Kdn. Inhibition by CMP-Kdn was observed only for rtCSS-FL, but not for rtCSS-N, suggesting that the inhibition was C-domain-dependent. Third, the inhibitory effect of CMP-Kdn was also investigated using the mouse CSS (mCSS). However, no inhibition was observed with mCSS even at high concentrations of CMP-Kdn. Taken together, the data demonstrated that the C-domain is involved in the CMP-Kdn-dependent inhibition of rtCSS, which is a novel regulation of the Sia metabolism in rainbow trout

La chimie en Région Hauts-de-France : Chimie, biologie et santé

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Probing the CMP-Sialic Acid Donor Specificity of Two Human β- d -Galactoside Sialyltransferases (ST3Gal I and ST6Gal I) Selectively Acting on O- and N-Glycosylproteins

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Novel Zebrafish Mono-α2,8-sialyltransferase (ST8Sia VIII): An Evolutionary Perspective of α2,8-Sialylation

The mammalian mono-α2,8-sialyltransferase ST8Sia VI has been shown to catalyze the transfer of a unique sialic acid residues onto core 1 O-glycans leading to the formation of di-sialylated O-glycosylproteins and to a lesser extent to diSia motifs onto glycolipids like GD1a. Previous studies also reported the identification of an orthologue of the ST8SIA6 gene in the zebrafish genome. Trying to get insights into the biosynthesis and function of the oligo-sialylated glycoproteins during zebrafish development, we cloned and studied this fish α2,8-sialyltransferase homologue. In situ hybridization experiments demonstrate that expression of this gene is always detectable during zebrafish development both in the central nervous system and in non-neuronal tissues. Intriguingly, using biochemical approaches and the newly developed in vitro MicroPlate Sialyltransferase Assay (MPSA), we found that the zebrafish recombinant enzyme does not synthetize diSia motifs on glycoproteins or glycolipids as the human homologue does. Using comparative genomics and molecular phylogeny approaches, we show in this work that the human ST8Sia VI orthologue has disappeared in the ray-finned fish and that the homologue described in fish correspond to a new subfamily of α2,8-sialyltransferase named ST8Sia VIII that was not maintained in Chondrichtyes and Sarcopterygii

Amino Acids Bearing Aromatic or Heteroaromatic Substituents as a New Class of Ligands for the Lysosomal Sialic Acid Transporter Sialin

International audienceSialin, encoded by the SLC17A5 gene, is a lysosomal sialic acid transporter defective in Salla disease, a rare inherited leukodystrophy. It also enables metabolic incorporation of exogenous sialic acids, leading to autoanti-bodies against N-glycolylneuraminic acid in humans. Here, we identified a novel class of human sialin ligands by virtual screening and structure−activity relationship studies. The ligand scaffold is characterized by an amino acid backbone with a free carboxylate, an N-linked aromatic or heteroaromatic substituent, and a hydrophobic side chain. The most potent compound, 45 (LSP12-3129), inhibited N-acetylneuraminic acid 1 (Neu5Ac) transport in a non-competitive manner with IC 50 ≈ 2.5 μM, a value 400-fold lower than the K M for Neu5Ac. In vitro and molecular docking studies attributed the non-competitive character to selective inhibitor binding to the Neu5Ac site in a cytosol-facing conformation. Moreover, compound 45 rescued the trafficking defect of the pathogenic mutant (R39C) causing Salla disease. This new class of cell-permeant inhibitors provides tools to investigate the physiological roles of sialin and help develop pharmacological chaperones for Salla disease