Conformational structure of the immunologically active pentasaccharide of Forssman antigen

Summary form only given. The pentasaccharide moiety of Forssman antigen has been studied by quantum chemical and molecular mechanics methods in an effort to determine its three-dimensional model. It is noted that most of the side-group orientations do not change significantly when polymerization takes place. It is found that whereas the outermost units retain their structure to a large extent, the local interactions do modify the preferred conformations for the inner subunits. Local interactions are seen to play a dominant role in stabilizing the conformational states