Carbohydrates are essential for the survival and proliferation of many microorganisms, for cancer progression, and they play a major role in immunogenicity. Therefore, these macromolecules are at the center of many vaccines that are currently undergoing clinical trials or are already commercially available, and are used for cancer diagnosis. Detection of glycosylated macromolecules by antibodies is affected by the binding affinity between the antigen and the antibody, and this in turn can be modulated by changes in the 3D conformation of either of the binding partners.
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