Galectin–Glycan Interactions: Guidelines for Monitoring by 77Se NMR Spectroscopy, and Solvent (H2O/D2O) Impact on Binding

Functional pairing between cellular glycoconjugates and tissue lectins like galectins has wide (patho)physiological significance. Their study is facilitated by nonhydrolysable derivatives of the natural O‐glycans, such as S‐ and Se‐glycosides. The latter enable extensive analyses by specific 77Se NMR spectroscopy, but still remain underexplored. By using the example of selenodigalactoside (SeDG) and the human galectin‐1 and ‐3, we have evaluated diverse 77Se NMR detection methods and propose selective 1H,77Se heteronuclear Hartmann–Hahn transfer for efficient use in competitive NMR screening against a selenoglycoside spy ligand. By fluorescence anisotropy, circular dichroism, and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), we show that the affinity and thermodynamics of SeDG binding by galectins are similar to thiodigalactoside (TDG) and N‐acetyllactosamine (LacNAc), confirming that Se substitution has no major impact. ITC data in D2O versus H2O are similar for TDG and LacNAc binding by both galectins, but a solvent effect, indicating solvent rearrangement at the binding site, is hinted at for SeDG and clearly observed for LacNAc dimers with extended chain length. Selenoglycosides offer attractive benefits over natural O‐glycans for studying molecular recognition processes, such as access to specific 77Se NMR spectroscopy. We evaluate NMR methods for 1H,77Se correlation, including the new selective HeHaHa experiment. We show that the thermodynamics of selenodigalactoside binding to human galectins remains unaltered, but a clear solvent effect is observed if the glycan chain is extended.