title: The Sweet Side of Immune Evasion: Role of Glycans in the Mechanisms of Cancer Progression.
abstract: Glycans are part of the essential components of a cell. These compounds play a fundamental role in several physiopathological processes, including cell differentiation, adhesion, motility, signal transduction, host-pathogen interactions, tumor cell invasion, and metastasis development. Glycans are also able to exert control over the changes in tumor immunogenecity, interfering with tumor editing events and leading to immune-resistant cancer cells. The involvement of glycans in cancer progression is related to glycosylation alterations. Understanding such changes is, therefore, extremely useful to set the stage for their use as biomarkers, improving the diagnostics and therapeutic strategies. Herein, we discuss the basis of how modifications in glycosylation patterns may contribute to cancer genesis and progression as well as their importance in oncology field.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Flávia Fernandes Ribas
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Nardy
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Glicobiologia, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Freire-de-Lima
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Glicobiologia, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
authors.forename: Célio Geraldo
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Freire-de-Lima
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morrot
keywords: cancer immunology; glycosylation; immune evasion; immunesurveillance; tumor virulence