Faculty of Agriculture, Ehime University, 3-5-7 Tarumi, Matsuyama, Ehime, 790-8566, Japan,
Cytotechnology. 2001 Jul;36(1-3):93-9. doi: 10.1023/A:1014057407251.
Eucheuma serra agglutinin (ESA) derived from a marine red alga, Eucheuma serra, is a lectin that specifically binds to mannose-rich carbohydrate chains. ESA is a monomeric molecule, with a molecular weight of29,000. ESA induced cell death against several cancer cell lines, such as colon cancer Colo201 cells and cervix cancer HeLa cells. DNA ladder detection and the induction of caspase-3 activity suggested that the cell death induced by ESA against cancer cells was apoptosis. ESA bound to the cell surface of Colo201 cells in the sugar chain dependent manner. This means that the binding of ESA to the cell surface is specific for mannose-rich sugar chains recognized by ESA. The binding of ESA to the cell surface of Colo201 cells was slightly suppressed by the high concentrations of serum because of the competition with serum components possessing the mannose-rich sugar chain motifs. On the other hand, a lipid vesicle is a very useful microcapsule constructed by multilamellar structure,and adopted as drug or gene carrier. ESA was immobilized on the surface of the lipid vesicles to apply the lipid vesicles to cancer specific drug delivery system. ESA-immobilized lipid vesicles were effectively bound to cancer cell lines compared with plane vesicles.
从海洋红藻麒麟菜中提取的麒麟菜凝集素（Eucheuma serra agglutinin，ESA）是一种特异性结合富含甘露糖的碳水化合物链的凝集素。ESA 是一种单体分子，分子量为 29000。ESA 可诱导多种癌细胞系（如结肠癌 Colo201 细胞和宫颈癌 HeLa 细胞）死亡。DNA 梯状检测和 caspase-3 活性诱导表明，ESA 诱导癌细胞死亡是通过细胞凋亡实现的。ESA 以糖链依赖的方式与 Colo201 细胞的细胞表面结合。这意味着 ESA 与细胞表面的结合是特异的，针对 ESA 识别的富含甘露糖的糖链。由于与具有富含甘露糖糖链结构的血清成分竞争，高浓度的血清会略微抑制 ESA 与 Colo201 细胞表面的结合。另一方面，脂质体是一种由多层结构构成的非常有用的微胶囊，可作为药物或基因载体。ESA 被固定在脂质体的表面上，以将脂质体应用于癌症特异性药物传递系统。与平面脂质体相比，ESA 固定化脂质体能够更有效地与癌细胞系结合。
