A new type of carbohydrate-containing synthetic antigen: synthesis of carbohydrate-containing polyacrylamide copolymers having the specificity of O:3 and O:4 factors of Salmonella.

The synthesis of a new type of synthetic antigen that contains no protein is described. Two linear polyacrylamide copolymers with carbohydrate branches were obtained via radical copolymerisation of the allyl glycosides of the oligosaccharide determinants O-beta-D-mannopyranosyl-(1----4)-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1----3 )-beta-D- galactopyranose and O-3,6-dideoxy-alpha-D-xylo-hexopyranosyl-(1----3)-alpha-D-mannopyranose with acrylamide. These copolymers, which contained 30% of carbohydrate and had molecular masses exceeding 100 kilodaltons, had the group specificity E and B of Salmonella.