Shiga toxin receptor Gb3Cer/CD77: tumor-association and promising therapeutic target in pancreas and colon cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite progress in adjuvant chemotherapy in the recent decades, pancreatic and colon cancers remain common causes of death worldwide. Bacterial toxins, which specifically bind to cell surface-exposed glycosphingolipids, are a potential novel therapy. We determined the expression of globotriaosylceramide (Gb3Cer/CD77), the Shiga toxin receptor, in human pancreatic and colon adenocarcinomas.

Methodology/principal findings

Tissue lipid extracts of matched pairs of cancerous and adjacent normal tissue from 21 pancreatic and 16 colon cancer patients were investigated with thin-layer chromatography overlay assay combined with a novel mass spectrometry approach. Gb3Cer/CD77 was localized by immunofluorescence microscopy of cryosections from malignant and corresponding h

SUBMITTER: Distler U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2730034 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature