Zhao Yan-Yang, Takahashi Motoko, Gu Jian-Guo, Miyoshi Eiji, Matsumoto Akio, Kitazume Shinobu, Taniguchi Naoyuki
Department of Disease Glycomics, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Cancer Sci. 2008 Jul;99(7):1304-10. doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2008.00839.x. Epub 2008 May 19.
Glycosylation is one of the most common post-translational modification reactions and nearly half of all known proteins in eukaryotes are glycosylated. In fact, changes in oligosaccharide structures are associated with many physiological and pathological events, including cell growth, migration, differentiation, tumor invasion, host-pathogen interactions, cell trafficking, and transmembrane signaling. Emerging roles of glycan functions have been highly attractive to scientists in various fields of life science as they open a field, "Functional Glycomics", that is a comprehensive study of the glycan structures in relation to functions. In particular, the N-glycans of signaling molecules including receptors or adhesion molecules are considered to be involved in cellular functions. This review will focus on the roles of glycosyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of N-glycan branching and identification of cell surface receptors as their target proteins. We also suggest that the modulation of N-glycans of those receptors alters their important functions such as cell signaling and cell adhesion which are implicated in cancer invasion and metastasis.
糖基化是最常见的翻译后修饰反应之一,真核生物中近一半的已知蛋白质都发生了糖基化。事实上,寡糖结构的变化与许多生理和病理事件相关,包括细胞生长、迁移、分化、肿瘤侵袭、宿主-病原体相互作用、细胞运输和跨膜信号传导。聚糖功能的新作用对生命科学各个领域的科学家极具吸引力,因为它们开辟了一个“功能糖组学”领域,即对聚糖结构与功能关系的全面研究。特别是,包括受体或粘附分子在内的信号分子的N-聚糖被认为参与细胞功能。本综述将重点关注参与N-聚糖分支生物合成的糖基转移酶的作用以及作为其靶蛋白的细胞表面受体的鉴定。我们还认为,对这些受体的N-聚糖进行调节会改变它们的重要功能,如细胞信号传导和细胞粘附,而这些功能与癌症侵袭和转移有关。