Targeting Glycans and Heavily Glycosylated Proteins for Tumor Imaging.

ABSTRACT: Real-time tumor imaging techniques are increasingly used in oncological surgery, but still need to be supplemented with novel targeted tracers, providing specific tumor tissue detection based on intra-tumoral processes or protein expression. To maximize tumor/non-tumor contrast, targets should be highly and homogenously expressed on tumor tissue only, preferably from the earliest developmental stage onward. Unfortunately, most evaluated tumor-associated proteins appear not to meet all of these criteria. Thus, the quest for ideal targets continues. Aberrant glycosylation of proteins and lipids is a fundamental hallmark of almost all cancer types and contributes to tumor progression. Additionally, overexpression of glycoproteins that carry aberrant glycans, such as mucins and proteoglycans,

SUBMITTER: Houvast RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7767531 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature