title: Mucin-based targeted pancreatic cancer therapy.
abstract: The prognosis of pancreatic cancer (PC) patients is very poor with a five-year survival of less than 5%. One of the major challenges in developing new therapies for PC is the lack of expression of specific markers by pancreatic tumor cells. Mucins are heavily Oglycosylated proteins characterized by the presence of short stretches of amino acid sequences repeated several times in tandem. The expression of several mucins including MUC1, MUC4, MUC5AC, and MUC16 is strongly upregulated in PC. Recent studies have also demonstrated a link between the aberrant expression and differential overexpression of mucin glycoproteins to the initiation, progression, and poor prognosis of the disease. These studies have led to increasing recognition of mucins as potential diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets in PC. In this focused review we present an overview of the therapies targeting mucins in PC, including immunotherapy (i.e. vaccines, antibodies, and radioimmunoconjugates), gene therapy, and other novel therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198-5870, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Maria P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: Subhankar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Souchek
authors.forename: Surinder K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Batra
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009077:Mucins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D009077:Mucins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins