0:00
Hello. My name is Paula Videira.
I'm a Professor at NOVA School
of Science and Technology
and also a researcher at UCIBIO, the
Institute for Health and Bioeconomy.
I'm here to give you a talk
about glycoimmunology.
Glycoimmunology has been
a science that has been
inspiring me for many years.
I'm leading a group,
a research group, which
studies glycoimmunology.
0:26
In the context of my talk,
I will start by talking
about what glycosylation is.
What are the glycans and how do
they affect the immune system.
I'll also talk about
glycan-binding proteins,
in particular lectins,
their types and their roles
in the immune response.
At the end, I will give
you some insight into how
glycoimmunology is
important for diseases
where you can find alterations
of the glycan landscape,
like in the case of congenital
disorders of glycosylation
and also in cancer.
1:01
What is glycoimmunology?
Glycoimmunology comes
from glycobiology.
It's how glycobiology
affects the immune response.
Let's talk about what
glycobiology is.
Glycobiology is the
science of sugars.
The name 'glyco' comes
from the Greek word,
glukús, and it means sweet.
This is the science of sweets,
the science of sugars.
When we say sugars or glycans,
we are talking about
the same thing.
When we take a look
at any living cells,
we will find that
these living cells
are covered by a dense
array of glycans,
like an M&M sweet.
In the beginning,
scientists thought that
the glycans on the
cell surface was merely a
shield to protect cells
and enable them to
become more robust.
But we know that there
is a huge diversity
of these glycans at
the cell surface
and that they have many
more functions attributed,
which I will talk
about later on.
Also, you can see
here in the figure,
you can see an image of
the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
This is an example, it
could be any other virus,
but you will find that
this virus is also covered
with proteins and these
proteins are glycosylated.
Take the example of
the spike protein,
which, as you know,
is very important for infection
via the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The protein is very well decorated
with a dense array of glycans.
Another example could
be cancer cells,
like any living cells,
as I mentioned,
are covered by a dense
array of sugars.
When we look at
the cell surface,
we will find this
dense array of sugars.
