Involvement of a non-human sialic Acid in human cancer.

ABSTRACT: Sialic acids are common monosaccharides that are widely expressed as outer terminal units on all vertebrate cell surfaces, and play fundamental roles in cell-cell and cell-microenvironment interactions. The predominant sialic acids on most mammalian cells are N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) and N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac). Neu5Gc is notable for its deficiency in humans due to a species-specific and species-universal inactivating deletion in the CMAH gene encoding the hydroxylase that converts CMP-Neu5Ac to CMP-Neu5Gc. However, Neu5Gc is metabolically incorporated into human tissues from dietary sources (particularly red meat), and detected at even higher levels in some human cancers. Early life exposure to Neu5Gc-containing foods in the presence of certain commensal bacteria that i

SUBMITTER: Samraj AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3928833 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature