Structural studies on ligand binding ability of Siglec-2 using molecular modeling techniques

Siglecs are attractive therapeutic target of the major homologous subfamily of I-type lectins. The primary role of Siglecs may actually lie in the recognition and phagocytosis of bacterial pathogens that express sialic acids, maintenance of myelin organization, and inhibition of neurite outgrowth, cell-cell interactions between neurons and glial cells etc. Siglec-2, a member of the Siglec family expressed on the surface of maturing B cells and B cell lymphomas and regulates signal transduction. In this work, 3-D structure of human Siglec-2 was predicted using molecular modeling techniques. The structure of the complex in solution of Siglec-2 with ligand, 6′-Sialyl-N-acetyl lactose (6′-SialylLacNAc) was predicted using a novel docking technique. The structural analysis of the complex and calculation of theoretical dissociation constant value will help to ascertain functional roles of such sugar binding protein.