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Lectins isolated from mushroom Clitocybe nebularis<br />
Jure Pohleven 1,2 , Jo`e Brzin 1 , Borut [trukelj 2<br />
1<br />
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jo`ef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39,<br />
Ljubljana, Slovenia; 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, A{ker~eva 7, Ljubljana,<br />
Slovenia<br />
Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins which potentially link to cell surface<br />
glycoconjugates and elicit many physiological effects. Consequently lectins possess<br />
insecticidal, immunomodulatory, antiviral, apoptosis-inducing, antitumor activities<br />
and have antiproliferative effect on cancer cells. Galectins are a family of lectins<br />
found in animals, humans and also in fungi. These proteins exhibit an important<br />
function in tumor progression and are therefore potential targets for the diagnosis<br />
and treatment of cancer.<br />
In our research we isolated several lectins from fruiting bodies of the mushroom<br />
Clitocybe nebularis by specific affinity chromatographies. They have different binding<br />
specificities towards sugars, different isoelectric points and N-terminal sequences<br />
with no similarities to any lectin or protein in the databases. We showed that these<br />
lectins have strong insecticidal properties but other activities are yet to be found out.<br />
p31<br />
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