Efficient biochemical engineering of cellular sialic acids using an unphysiological sialic acid precursor in cells lacking UDP‐N‐acetylglucosamine 2‐epimerase

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Abstract
Sialic acids comprise a family of terminal sugars essential for a variety of biological recognition systems. N‐Propanoylmannosamine, an unphysiological sialic acid precursor, is taken up and metabolized by mammalian cells resulting in oligosaccharide‐bound N‐propanoylneuraminic acid. N‐Propanoylmannosamine, applied to endogenously hyposialylated subclones of the myeloid leukemia HL60 and of the B‐cell lymphoma BJA‐B, both deficient in UDP‐N‐acetylglucosamine 2‐epimerase, is efficiently metabolized to CMP‐N‐propanoylneuraminic acid resulting in up to 85% of glycoconjugate‐associated sialic acids being unphysiological N‐propanoylneuraminic acid. Thus, UDP‐N‐acetylglucosamine 2‐epimerase‐deficient cell lines provide an important experimental progress in engineering cells to display an almost homogeneous population of defined, structurally altered sialic acids.