Histo-blood group glycans in the context of personalized medicine

TL;DR

This review discusses how histo-blood group glycans influence disease susceptibility, microbiota, and therapy, highlighting their potential as biomarkers and targets for personalized medicine.

Contribution

It synthesizes current knowledge on the molecular roles of histo-blood group glycans and emphasizes future research directions with technological advancements.

Findings

Glycan-based blood groups are linked to microbiota composition.

They are associated with disease risks and therapeutic outcomes.

Potential as biomarkers and vaccine targets is promising.

Abstract

Background: A subset of histo-blood group antigens including ABO and Lewis are oligosaccharide structures which may be conjugated to lipids or proteins. They are known to be important recognition motifs not only in the context of blood transfusions, but also in infection and cancer development. Scope of review: Current knowledge on the molecular background and the implication of histo-blood group glycans in the prevention and therapy of infectious and non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, is presented. Major conclusions: Glycan-based histo-blood groups are associated with intestinal microbiota com-position, the risk of various diseases as well as therapeutic success of, e.g., vaccination. Their potential as prebiotic or anti-microbial agents, as disease biomarkers and vaccine targets should be further investigated in future studies. For this, recent and future technological advancements will be of particular importance, especially with regard to the unambiguous structural characterization of the glycan portion in combination with information on the protein and lipid carriers of histo-blood group-active glycans in large cohorts. General significance: Histo-blood group glycans have a unique linking position in the complex net-work of genes, oncodevelopmental biological processes, and disease mechanisms. Thus, they are highly promising targets for novel approaches in the field of personalized medicine.