10.1371/journal.ppat.1002372 Thierry Fontaine Thierry Fontaine Aurélie Delangle Aurélie Delangle Catherine Simenel Catherine Simenel Bernadette Coddeville Bernadette Coddeville Sandra J. van Vliet Sandra J. van Vliet Yvette van Kooyk Yvette van Kooyk Silvia Bozza Silvia Bozza Silvia Moretti Silvia Moretti Flavio Schwarz Flavio Schwarz Coline Trichot Coline Trichot Markus Aebi Markus Aebi Muriel Delepierre Muriel Delepierre Carole Elbim Carole Elbim Luigina Romani Luigina Romani Jean-Paul Latgé Jean-Paul Latgé Galactosaminogalactan, a New Immunosuppressive Polysaccharide of <em>Aspergillus fumigatus</em> Public Library of Science 2011 immunosuppressive polysaccharide 2011-11-10 00:25:09 Dataset https://plos.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Galactosaminogalactan_a_New_Immunosuppressive_Polysaccharide_of_Aspergillus_fumigatus_/131509 <div><p>A new polysaccharide secreted by the human opportunistic fungal pathogen <em>Aspergillus fumigatus</em> has been characterized. Carbohydrate analysis using specific chemical degradations, mass spectrometry, <sup>1</sup>H and <sup>13</sup>C nuclear magnetic resonance showed that this polysaccharide is a linear heterogeneous galactosaminogalactan composed of α1-4 linked galactose and α1-4 linked N-acetylgalactosamine residues where both monosacharides are randomly distributed and where the percentage of galactose per chain varied from 15 to 60%. This polysaccharide is antigenic and is recognized by a majority of the human population irrespectively of the occurrence of an <em>Aspergillus</em> infection. GalNAc oligosaccharides are an essential epitope of the galactosaminogalactan that explains the universal antibody reaction due to cross reactivity with other antigenic molecules containing GalNAc stretches such as the N-glycans of <em>Campylobacter jejuni</em>. The galactosaminogalactan has no protective effect during <em>Aspergillus</em> infections. Most importantly, the polysaccharide promotes fungal development in immunocompetent mice due to its immunosuppressive activity associated with disminished neutrophil infiltrates.</p> </div>