About the Cover
The Journal of Experimental Medicine
195
12
Bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]) is the well-known immune recognition pattern of Gram-negative bacteria. Lipoteichoic acid (LTA) has been proposed as a putative Gram-positive immunostimulatory counterpart to LPS. In a 47-step chemical synthesis, the LTA from Staphylococcus aureus was modeled. The cover image shows a three-dimensional structure of this synthetic LTA based on nuclear magnetic resonance measurements. The synthetic LTA has a similar potency to activate human monocytes as natural LTA and also depends critically on d-alanine substituents in the backbone. See related article by Morath et al., pp.
1635-1640.
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