Glycoprotein

Glycoproteins are proteins that "contain" oligosaccharide chains (glycans) covalently attached to polypeptide side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycosylation. Secreted extracellular proteins are often glycosylated.

In proteins that have segments extending extracellularly, the extracellular segments are also glycosylated. Glycoproteins are often important integral membrane proteins, where they play a role in cell–cell interactions. Glycoproteins are also formed in the cytosol, but their functions and the pathways producing these modifications in this compartment are less understood.

Types of glycosylation

There are several types of glycosylation, although the first two are the most common.

Glycoprotein 130

Glycoprotein 130 (also known as gp130, IL6ST, IL6-beta or CD130) is a transmembrane protein which is the founding member of the class of all cytokine receptors. It forms one subunit of the type I cytokine receptor within the IL-6 receptor family. It is often referred to as the common gp130 subunit, and is important for signal transduction following cytokine engagement. As with other type I cytokine receptors, gp130 possesses a WSXWS amino acid motif that ensures correct protein folding and ligand binding. It interacts with Janus kinases to elicit an intracellular signal following receptor interaction with its ligand. Structurally, gp130 is composed of five fibronectin type-III domains and one immunoglobulin-like C2-type (immunoglobulin-like) domain in its extracellular portion.

Characteristics

The members of the IL-6 receptor family all complex with gp130 for signal transduction. For example, IL-6 binds to the IL-6 Receptor. The complex of these two proteins then associates with gp130. This complex of 3 proteins then homodimerizes to form a hexameric complex which can produce downstream signals. There are many other proteins which associate with gp130, such as cardiotrophin 1 (CT-1), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), oncostatin M (OSM), and IL-11. There are also several other proteins which have structural similarity to gp130 and contain the WSXWS motif and preserved cysteine residues. Members of this group include LIF-R, OSM-R, and G-CSF-R.

Glycoprotein 100

Glycoprotein 100, gp100 or Melanocyte protein PMEL is 661 amino acids long and is a type I transmembrane glycoprotein enriched in melanosomes, which are the melanin-producing organelles in melanocytes. This protein is involved in melanosome maturation.

The gp100 protein is a melanoma antigen i.e. a tumor-associated antigen.

Short fragments of it have been used to develop the gp100 cancer vaccine which is or contains gp100:209-217(210M).

Hydrophilic recombinant gp100 protein (HR-gp100) has been topically applied on human intact skin in vitro, and used as a vaccine in a mouse model. It was demonstrated that HR-gp100 permeates into human skin, and is processed and presented by human dendritic cells. In the mouse model, an HR-gp100-based vaccine triggered antigen-specific T cell responses, as shown by proliferation assays, ELISA and intracellular staining for IFN-γ.

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