Binding and Inhibition Assays for Siglecs

Protein-carbohydrate interactions are believed to be important in many biological processes involving cellular communication. Although many of the experimental approaches for studying protein-carbohydrate interactions are similar to those commonly employed in protein-protein interactions, several important aspects have to be taken into account in binding assays with lectin-like receptors such as Siglecs, sialic acid-recognizing immunoglobulin-like lectins. This chapter describes experimental approaches using solid-phase assays with sialylated targets and complexed Siglec Fc-chimeras for binding studies or competitive inhibition assays. Such assays are useful to investigate various aspects of Siglec interactions with their carbohydrate-binding partners, such as the specificity and the molecular basis of sialic acid recognition.