A Sweet Warning: Mucin-Type O-Glycans in Cancer

Yuhan Zhang; Lingbo Sun; Changda Lei; Wenyan Li; Jiaqi Han; Jing Zhang; Yuecheng Zhang

doi:10.3390/cells11223666

A Sweet Warning: Mucin-Type O-Glycans in Cancer

Cells. 2022 Nov 18;11(22):3666. doi: 10.3390/cells11223666.

Authors

Yuhan Zhang¹, Lingbo Sun¹, Changda Lei², Wenyan Li¹, Jiaqi Han¹, Jing Zhang¹, Yuecheng Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ Medical College of Yan'an University, Yan'an University, Yan'an 716000, China.
² Department of Gastroenterology, Ninth Hospital of Xi'an, Xi'an 710054, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Analytical Technology and Detection of Yan'an, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yan'an University, Yan'an 716000, China.

Abstract

Glycosylation is a common post-translational modification process of proteins. Mucin-type O-glycosylation is an O-glycosylation that starts from protein serine/threonine residues. Normally, it is involved in the normal development and differentiation of cells and tissues, abnormal glycosylation can lead to a variety of diseases, especially cancer. This paper reviews the normal biosynthesis of mucin-type O-glycans and their role in the maintenance of body health, followed by the mechanisms of abnormal mucin-type O-glycosylation in the development of diseases, especially tumors, including the effects of Tn, STn, T antigen, and different glycosyltransferases, with special emphasis on their role in the development of gastric cancer. Finally, tumor immunotherapy targeting mucin-type O-glycans was discussed.

Keywords: cancer; mucin-type o-glycosylation; tumor therapy; tumor-associated antigens antigen.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Glycosylation
Glycosyltransferases / metabolism
Humans
Mucins* / metabolism
Neoplasms* / metabolism
Polysaccharides / metabolism
Proteins / metabolism

Substances

Mucins
Polysaccharides
Glycosyltransferases
Proteins

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22264023, 81860444, 82060521, 82260489, and 82260530); Health Research Project of Shaanxi Province (2022E019); Scientific Research Projects of Education Department of Shaanxi Provincial Government (22JK0614, 20JK0986 and 20JG041); Ph.D. start-up fund of Yan’an University (YDBK2020-30, YDBK2022-15); Shaanxi Province Natural Science Foundation (2020JQ-801 and 2021JQ-637); Shaanxi Province Key Science and Technology innovation team (2020TD-039) and Innovation Team of Yan’an City-Innovation Team for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control (2018CXTD-03).