Lectin-mediated Endocytosis Engineering Service

As an industry leader in antibody engineering and modification, Creative Biolabs is dedicated to exploring cutting-edge technologies to help clients with their unique projects.

With the identification of various cytoplasmic components that play crucial roles in cancer biology, there is an urgent need for developing new-generation anti-cancer agents to target those components by modulating their corresponding subcellular pathways. One prerequisite for these new agents is the capacity of membrane penetration (internalization) to ensure their access to the intracellular targets. Since the internalization of various protein agents (antibody or other therapeutic proteins) is restricted by the cell membrane permeability and the selectivity, innovative methods are in demand to promote the cross-membrane action of the anti-cytoplasmic target therapeutic proteins. Facilitated by our advanced glycol-engineering platform, Creative Biolabs is proud to offer antibody/protein modification services to enhance internalization using the lectin-mediated endocytosis pathways.

Introduction of Lectin

Lectins are proteins that locate on the cell surface. They are a large family of abundant proteins existing in many species and exert preferential binding patterns towards certain carbohydrate structures, for instance, certain protein N-glycans, certain unique glycosylation presented on the proteins, and certain plant signaling proteins (e.g. arabinogalactan proteins). As signal receptors, lectins function by mediating a variety of cellular processes, such as growth, differentiation, adhesion migration, and apoptosis.

Lectin-mediated Endocytosis

Various lectin-carbohydrate interactions have been identified in rodents, such as mouse and rats, and some other mammalian tissues, with high reactivity in the liver. One unique characteristic associated with cell surface lectins is their ability to induce lectin-mediated endocytosis (one type of receptor-mediated endocytosis) upon ligand binding, which applies to both endogenous glycans or artificial glycans bearing the recognizable sugar motifs. The exploration to utilize lectin-carbohydrate interaction and the subsequent endocytosis for drug delivery has been exploited in the liver. Previous work focused on lectin targets such as fucose-binding receptor in colon cancer cells, the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR), the rhamnose receptor, and the mannose receptor.

To fully exploit the potential of lectin-mediated endocytosis and develop new methods for introducing large protein-based therapeutics into the intracellular environment, scientists at Creative Biolabs are dedicated to developing antibodies or other therapeutic proteins bearing the lectin specific sugar motifs that will potentially be directed to the corresponding lectin and internalized after binding. With this innovative method, Creative Biolabs is confident that we will contribute significantly to the field of internalizing therapeutic antibody/protein development.

With over a decade of experience, Creative Biolabs integrates a variety of novel chemistry and biochemistry methodologies to promote antibody development for anti-intracellular targets. Please contact us for more information and detailed quotation.

Platform:

Intracellular Antibody Development Platform

All of our antibody products and services can only be used for preclinical research studies. Do not use them on humans.