High-mannose type oligosaccharide-dependent apoptosis in U937 cells induced by pradimicin, a mannose-binding antibiotic

Cell surface oligosaccharides play a role in a variety of biological events such as cell adhesion and signal transduction. We have shown that BMY-2886 4, a semi-synthetic analog of pradimicin, induced apoptosis of U937 cells w hich had been incubated with 1-deoxymannojirimycin, an inhibitor of mannosi dase I. BMY-28864 was not cytotoxic to the cells which had been cultivated with other glycosidase inhibitors such as castanospermine and swainsonine. We thus propose that BMY-28864 induces apoptosis by acting on a specific ma nnose-rich oligosaccharide, presumably (Man)(9)(GlcNAc)(2)dagger.