Glycan structures are common posttranslational modifications of proteins, which serve multiple important structural roles (for instance in protein folding), but also are crucial participants in cell-cell communications and in the regulation of immune responses. Through the interaction with glycan-binding receptors, glycans are able to affect the activation status of antigen-presenting cells, leading either to induction of pro-inflammatory responses or to suppression of immunity and instigation of immune tolerance. This unique feature of glycans has attracted the interest and spurred collaborations of glyco-chemists and glyco-immunologists to develop glycan-based tools as potential therapeutic approaches in the fight against diseases such as cancer and autoimmune conditions. In this review, we highlight emerging advances in this field, and in particular, we discuss on how glycan-modified conjugates or glycoengineered cells can be employed as targeting devices to direct tumor antigens to lectin receptors on antigen-presenting cells, like dendritic cells. In addition, we address how glycan-based nanoparticles can act as delivery platforms to enhance immune responses. Finally, we discuss some of the latest developments in glycan-based therapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells to achieve targeting of tumor-associated glycan-specific epitopes, as well as the use of glycan moieties to suppress ongoing immune responses, especially in the context of autoimmunity.

Blood Transfusion Center of Slovenia Ljubljana Slovenia

Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Faculty of Pharmacy University of Ljubljana Slovenia

Department of Biochemistry Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology Warsaw University of Life Sciences SGGW Poland

Department of Chemical Sciences University of Naples Federico 2 Complesso Universitario Monte Sant'Angelo Napoli Italy

Department of Chemistry 'Ugo Schiff' University of Florence Florence Italy

Department of Chemistry and CRC Materiali Polimerici University of Milan Italy

Department of Chemistry Faculty of Arts and Sciences Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Rize Turkey

Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine University of Milan Italy

Department of Microbiology and Parasitology Jan Kochanowski University Kielce Poland

Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology Cancer Center Amsterdam Amsterdam Infection and Immunity Institute Amsterdam UMC Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands

Department of Organic Chemistry Faculty of Sciences University of Malaga Spain

Department of Translational Medicine the Translational Glycobiology Institute Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine Florida International University Miami FL USA

Division of Medical Inflammation Research Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics Karolinska Institute Stockholm Sweden

I3S Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde Universidade do Porto Portugal

Immunohematology and Glycobiology Laboratory Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute Badalona Spain

IPATIMUP Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar University of Porto Portugal

National Research Council CNR SCITEC Milan Italy

Technical R and D GSK Vaccines S r l Siena Italy

Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences National Institute of the Republic of Serbia University of Belgrade Serbia

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