This is a schematic of microbial glycan arrays. Our bodies produce a family of proteins that recognize and kill bacteria whose carbohydrate coatings resemble those of our own cells too closely, scientists have discovered. Called galectins, these proteins recognize carbohydrates from a broad range of disease-causing bacteria, and could potentially be deployed as antibiotics to treat certain infections. The results are scheduled for publication in Nature Chemical Biology. Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine made the discovery with the aid of glass slides coated with an array of over 300 different glycans (carbohydrates found on the surfaces of cells) derived from bacteria, many of which are found in the intestine. One can think of these slides – called microbial glycan microarrays – as wardrobes displaying a variety of clothes worn by gut bacteria. “Many microbes cover themselves with glycans that somewhat resemble our own cells,” says Richard D. Cummings, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry at Emory University School of Medicine. “That limits how well the immune system can use antibodies to respond to those microbes.” To prevent auto-immune attack, our bodies usually don’t make antibodies against molecules found on our own cells. That leaves gaps
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