Targeting Selectins and Their Ligands in Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Aberrant glycosylation is a hallmark of cancer cells with increased evidence pointing to a role in tumor progression. In particular, aberrant sialylation of glycoproteins and glycolipids has been linked to increased immune cell evasion, drug evasion, drug resistance, tumor invasiveness, and vascular dissemination, leading to metastases. Hypersialylation of cancer cells is largely the result of overexpression of sialyltransferases (STs). Differentially, humans express twenty different STs in a tissue-specific manner, each of which catalyzes the attachment of sialic acids via different glycosidic linkages (α2-3, α2-6, or α2-8) to the underlying glycan chain. One important mechanism whereby overexpression of STs contributes to an enhanced metastatic phenotype is via the generation of selectin

SUBMITTER: Natoni A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4834419 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature