Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Lectin Properties Of Synthetically Produced Glucuronate, Alginate, And Related Boronates, Vanessa Angel

Honors Theses

In the nineteenth century, researchers discovered that some proteins had the ability to agglutinate red blood cells (Goldstein, 1980). These proteins were found mainly in the seeds of leguminous plants and were named phytohemagglutinins or hemagglutinins. Particular hemagglutinins were able to agglutinate red blood cells (RBCs) of a specific blood type. Now a days, these proteins are more widely known as Lectins. Lectins are proteinaceous macromolecules of nonimmune origin, capable of interacting with carbohydrates to form complexes (Goldstein, 1980). Lectins sources derive mainly from leguminous plants, animals, fruiting bodies of fungi, and bacteria. This research focuses on identifying the lectin …