title: Aberrant glycosylation as biomarker for cancer: focus on CD43.
abstract: Glycosylation is a posttranslational modification of proteins playing a major role in cell signalling, immune recognition, and cell-cell interaction because of their glycan branches conferring structure variability and binding specificity to lectin ligands. Aberrant expression of glycan structures as well as occurrence of truncated structures, precursors, or novel structures of glycan may affect ligand-receptor interactions and thus interfere with regulation of cell adhesion, migration, and proliferation. Indeed, aberrant glycosylation represents a hallmark of cancer, reflecting cancer-specific changes in glycan biosynthesis pathways such as the altered expression of glycosyltransferases and glycosidases. Most studies have been carried out to identify changes in serum glycan structures. In most cancers, fucosylation and sialylation are significantly modified. Thus, aberrations in glycan structures can be used as targets to improve existing serum cancer biomarkers. The ability to distinguish differences in the glycosylation of proteins between cancer and control patients emphasizes glycobiology as a promising field for potential biomarker identification. In this review, we discuss the aberrant protein glycosylation associated with human cancer and the identification of protein glycoforms as cancer biomarkers. In particular, we will focus on the aberrant CD43 glycosylation as cancer biomarker and the potential to exploit the UN1 monoclonal antibody (UN1 mAb) to identify aberrant CD43 glycoforms.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology and Viral Oncogenesis Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale"-IRCCS, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Franca Maria
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4167-2535
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Tuccillo
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University "Magna Graecia" of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Annamaria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Laurentiis
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University "Magna Graecia" of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Camillo
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6707-4723
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palmieri
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University "Magna Graecia" of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fiume
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology and Viral Oncogenesis Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale"-IRCCS, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0916-4015
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonelli
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology and Viral Oncogenesis Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale"-IRCCS, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borrelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University "Magna Graecia" of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Pierfrancesco
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tassone
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Scala
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology and Viral Oncogenesis Unit, Department of Experimental Oncology, Istituto Nazionale Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale"-IRCCS, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco Maria
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Buonaguro
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University "Magna Graecia" of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Ileana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Quinto
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University "Magna Graecia" of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scala
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D051917:Leukosialin / Q000378:metabolism*; D009077:Mucins / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D051917:Leukosialin; D009077:Mucins; D011134:Polysaccharides