The next molecule was much more ambitious! We call this the starfish molecule because it has five arms. At the end of each arm is one of the bridged Pk-trisaccharides. The goal was a molecule that binds simultaneously to 10 binding sites on the toxin, i.e. to sites 1 and 2 on each of the five subunits in the B pentamer.
The starfish molecule binds more than a million times as tightly to the toxin as a single trisaccharide. In fact, it binds tightly enough to protect cells in cell culture from the effects of the toxin.
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