Starfish takes the sting out of Shiga toxin

What is Starfish?

STARFISH is the name given to a synthetic oligovalent inhibitor developed to block the binding of Shiga like toxin to cells that express GB3 (also known as CD77) at their cell surface. Shiga like toxin is produced by E. coli O157 a pathogenic strain that causes hamburger disease.

STARFISH is a synthetic molecule built with pseudo five fold symmetry. The core is a functionalized glucose molecule into which are grafted spacers and at the tips of the spacers are placed 2 identical trisaccharides that correspond to the oligosaccharide recognized by Shiga like toxin. The spacers are designed to position the trisaccharide units at the correct length so that 5 trisaccharides may bind to a single toxin molecule.

The chemical structure of STARFISH