Immunomodulation by parasites: high mobility group 2 (HMG-2) protein is a putative intracellular mediator for fucosylated sugars of Schistosoma mansoni.

Fucosylated sugars in Schistosoma mansoni possess immunomodulatory properties. In order to gain insights to the mechanisms involved, attempts were made to identify host immune cell molecules that specifically recognize these sugars. On Western blots, specific binding of synthetic biotinylated fucose sugars to proteins of approximately 25-27kDa was observed. Three proteins were isolated by affinity chromatography and subjected to protein sequencing. The determined N-terminal sequences and that of tryptic peptides of two proteins did not show homology to known sequences in the NCBI database. The third was identified as a member of the high mobility group 2 (HMG-2) proteins. In vitro stimulation of mouse spleen cells with Lewis(x) sugars up-regulated the expression of HMG-2 mRNA. These data suggest that HMG-2 protein may function as a putative intracellular receptor/mediator for fucosylated sugars of parasites.