Role of Glycosaminoglycans in Infectious Disease

“…Briefly, the effects of purified syndecans on bacterial killing by AMPs can be determined by incubating bacteria (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus , Pseudomonas aeruginosa from ATCC) with AMPs (e.g., LL-37, CRAMP from Anaspec) without or with increasing doses of purified syndecans, and measuring bacterial survival by plating serial dilutions on nutrient agar plates and counting bacterial colonies (Hayashida et al, 2015; Jinno & Park, 2015). …”

“…Corneal infections affect around 500,000 patients globally and can lead to reduced visual acuity, irreversible scaring, and blindness (Wilhelmus, 2002; Bourcier et al, 2003; Jinno and Park, 2015). The cornea is the major refractive element of the adult eye, and consists of three layers, including a thick middle layer known as the stroma, separated by basement membranes from an external stratified epithelium and an inner layer of endothelial cells.…”

“…Alternatively, HepP may manipulate the host innate immune response by interfering either with the interaction of HS with neutrophil bactericidal effectors (such as elastase, cathepsin G, and defensins) or with the HSPG binding of the cytokines and chemokines that are released during the inflammatory processes. Such interactions are important for the rapid recruitment of neutrophils to the site of infection (40,41). Besides killing microbes via the production of reactive oxygen species and the release of antimicrobial peptides and mediators, neutrophils may expel their nuclear contents to form neutrophil extracellular traps that help control microbial infections by binding and trapping pathogens (39).…”