Editorial [ Hot Topic:Complex Carbohydrates (Guest Editors: Nasir-ud-Din & Daniel C. Hoessli) ]

This issue of Current Organic Chemistry on Complex Carbohydrates shall illustrate several medical contexts where carbohydrates and their recognition are central to the disease process, or to the development of therapeutic strategies. On a more theoretical ground, the problem of how to analyse multifunctionality of proteins regulated either genetically or by posttranslational modifications shall be dealt with in the last review. The review by Stoykova and Scanlin deals with the “glycosylation phenotype” of cystic fibrosis and the infection by P. aeruginosa to which it contributes in 80% of the patients with cystic fibrosis. Diskin and Panjwani focus on glaucoma, an eye disease in which lectin-carbohydrate interactions perturb the outflow of the aqueous humor through the trabecular meshwork, and result in elevated intraocular pressure. In their discussion of the therapeutic potential of mistletoe lectin I, Hoessli and Ahmad provide information as to how this plant lectin could be utilized therapeutically to eliminate cancer cells and increase the patient's immune defenses against the tumor. Mendonca-Previato et al. review the vast field of carbohydrates elaborated by protozoan parasites, which consist mainly of complex sugars linked to lipids and membrane-bound. Interfering with the biosynthesis of such sugars makes it possible to modify the host-parasite interface and propose new therapies. In their review on galactose, Walker-Nasir et al. discuss how carbohydrates bearing terminal galactose such as blood group B determinants, are involved in determining carbohydrate recognition and how carbohydrate databases could further our understanding of such biological contexts. Finally, Nasir-ud-Din et al. approach the complex subject of post-translational modifications including structure-function relationship, and discuss how the in silico approach will help us understanding the functional switches that occur in proteins following post-translational modifications.