Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2011 Jan;89(1):45-55. doi: 10.1007/s00253-010-2892-9. Epub 2010 Oct 3.
Lectins are proteins found in a diversity of organisms. They possess the ability to agglutinate erythrocytes with known carbohydrate specificity since they have at least one non-catalytic domain that binds reversibly to specific monosaccharides or oligosaccharides. This articles aims to review the production and practical applications of lectins. Lectins are isolated from their natural sources by chromatographic procedures or produced by recombinant DNA technology. The yields of animal lectins are usually low compared with the yields of plant lectins such as legume lectins. Lectins manifest a diversity of activities including antitumor, immunomodulatory, antifungal, HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory, and anti-insect activities, which may find practical applications. A small number of lectins demonstrate antibacterial and anti-nematode activities.
凝集素是存在于多种生物体中的蛋白质。它们具有凝集红细胞的能力，并且具有已知的碳水化合物特异性，因为它们至少有一个非催化结构域，可与特定的单糖或寡糖可逆地结合。本文旨在综述凝集素的生产和实际应用。凝集素可通过色谱程序从天然来源中分离出来，也可通过重组 DNA 技术生产。与植物凝集素（如豆科植物凝集素）相比，动物凝集素的产量通常较低。凝集素有多种活性，包括抗肿瘤、免疫调节、抗真菌、HIV-1 逆转录酶抑制和抗昆虫活性，可能具有实际应用价值。少数凝集素具有抗菌和抗线虫活性。
