Sweetening the pot: adding glycosylation to the biomarker discovery equation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cancer has profound effects on gene expression, including a cell's glycosylation machinery. Thus, tumors produce glycoproteins that carry oligosaccharides with structures that are markedly different from the same protein produced by a normal cell. A single protein can have many glycosylation sites that greatly amplify the signals they generate compared with their protein backbones.

Content

In this article, we survey clinical tests that target carbohydrate modifications for diagnosing and treating cancer. We present the biological relevance of glycosylation to disease progression by highlighting the role these structures play in adhesion, signaling, and metastasis and then address current methodological approaches to biomarker discovery that capitalize on selective

SUBMITTER: Drake PM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2849286 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature