A Sweet Galactose Transfer – Metabolic Oligosaccharide Engineering as a Tool to Study Glycans in Plasmodium Infection

The use of artificial galactose derivatives and labelling through iEDDA reaction in the liver stage of Plasmodium infection showed increased uptake in infected hepatic cells, through participation of GLUT1 transporters. Furthermore, unprotected derivatives are transferred from the mosquito host to the Plasmodium berghei parasite. This strategy has the potential to provide new insights into Plasmodium glycobiology.