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The Role of the Biological Sugars
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Summary Glycoproteins are proteins that contain one or more sugars. They are present in all human cells & tissues Glycoproteins have important functions. Abnormal sugar chains (due to mutations) can result in many diseases. Their roles in a number of diseases were briefly presented in the previous pages of this lesson. Specific sugar supplements have been found beneficial in certain diseases.
The Case for Glyconutritional Supplements1
Glucose is not the only source of sugars for synthesis of glycoproteins (it was formerly thought to be The study of certain genetic diseases (e.g. CDGs & CF) has shown that other sugars (e.g. fucose, mannose) can be used in therapy Certain sugars (e.g. mannose) are incorporated into glycoproteins preferentially Direct utilization of sugars for glycoprotein synthesis other than glucose may be important in malnutrition,
stress, inflammation, chronic diseases, etc. (conditional deficiency) Hormones & growth factors can affect the metabolic pathways of sugar metabolism (e.g. cortisol The uses of sugars such as glucosamine in osteoarthritis & GlcNAc in colitis may supplement biosynthetic pathways in chronically stressed cells2 We are eating more refined sugars (e.g. sucrose), but many of us are not eating fresh fruits & vegetables, which contain mannose, galactose & the other Big 8 sugars Some fruits contain less of the essential sugars than 50 years ago (see UK Study referenced in the Digestive lessons) Cooking & processing deplete foods of the essential sugars The bacterial content of our colons is apparently different from that of our ancestors. This negatively affects the breakdown of polysaccharides to sugars in our colon Thus, many of us may be deficient in at least certain of the Big 8 sugars
1. Adapted from presentation of R. Murray at the Glycomics Seminar, Houston, TX. 2006.
2. Freeze, HH. J Cell Biol</i>, Aug 2002.
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