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Rheumatology Advance Access published online on March 27, 2008
Rheumatology, doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken081
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Review

Sweet and sour: the impact of sugars on disease

A. Alavi and J. S. Axford

Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Musculoskeletal Disorders, St George's; University of London, London, UK.

Correspondence to: A. Alavi, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Musculoskeletal Disorders, St George's; University of London, London SW17 ORE, UK. E-mail: aalavi{at}sgul.ac.uk


  Abstract

The clinical relevance of glycobiology has become the focus of considerable research, as the role of glycosylation in the development, regulation and progression of disease is, slowly but surely, being unveiled. Recent strides in the design and refinement of analytical techniques—sugar profiling, glyco-arrays and functional studies—have helped us gain a better understanding of the complexity and richness of diversity that bestow sugars with an unsurpassed, biospecific coding capacity. Cracking this ‘sugar code’, and unravelling the structural frameworks and recognition strategies of sugar-based interactions in biological systems that relate to both health and disease, holds tremendous promise for deciphering disease mechanisms. It will also provide a cutting edge potential for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

KEY WORDS: Glycosylation, RA, Autoimmunity, Sugar printing disease, Immunoglobulin G, RA biomarker

Submitted 3 June 2007; revised version accepted 1 January 2008.
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