Communications in Information and Systems

Volume 21 (2021)

Number 1

Carbohydrate-protein interactions: advances and challenges

Pages: 147 – 163

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/CIS.2021.v21.n1.a7

Authors

Shuang Zhang (Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy & Dept. of Biochemistry, Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., U.S.A.)

Kyle Yu Chen (Rock Bridge High School, Columbia, Missouri, U.S.A.)

Xiaoqin Zou (Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy & Dept. of Biochemistry, Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., U.S.A.)

Abstract

A carbohydrate, also called saccharide in biochemistry, is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms. For example, sugars are low molecular-weight carbohydrates, and starches are high molecular-weight carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the most abundant organic substances in nature and essential constituents of all living things. Protein-carbohydrate interactions play important roles in many biological processes, such as cell growth, differentiation, and aggregation. They also have broad applications in pharmaceutical drug design. In this review, we will summarize the characteristic features of protein-carbohydrate interactions and review the computational methods for structure prediction, energy calculations, and kinetic studies of protein-carbohydrate complexes. Finally, we will discuss the challenges in this field.

Keywords

carbohydrate-protein interactions, saccharide-protein interactions, sugar-protein binding, structure prediction, molecular docking, drug discovery

Received 15 December 2020

Published 8 February 2021