ABSTRACT
Over the past 10 years, a significant and always growing literature suggests that the glycoconjugates of the mycobacterial envelope play a crucial role in the immunopathogenesis of tuberculosis infection and also in protective immunity. Like for many other cases of intracellular bacterial pathogens, the glycoconjugates of the envelope constitute a primary line of interactions between the infecting mycobacteria and their host-cells. Most of the recent findings indicate that the recognition by specific cell receptor of these complex glycoconjugates such as the lipoarabinomannans (LAM), may determine the correct addressing and the adhesion of the pathogenic mycobacteria to their target cells: the alveolar macrophages. Moreover, several mycobacterial glycoconjugates are also known to modulate both the microbicidal activity and the cytokine secretion of the phagocytes supporting the idea that they may be involved in the intramacrophagic survival of the bacteria and therefore in the bacterial virulence. In addition, mycobacterial glycoconjugates were found to stimulate human T-cells suggesting their putative involvement in the protective immunity against tuberculosis.
