Endogenous lectins with specificity to beta-galactosides and alpha- or beta-N-acetyl-galactosaminides in human breast cancer. Their glycohistochemical detection in tissue sections by synthetically different types of neoglycoproteins, their quantitation on cultured cells by neoglycoenzymes and their usefulness as targets in lectin-mediated phototherapy in vitro.

Endogenous lectins may augment the panel of tumor markers. Specific protein-carbohydrate interactions especially involve carbohydrate moieties that are located at sequence termini, e.g. D-galactose and N-acetyl-D-galactosamine. Respective endogenous lectins can be detected by suitably constructed neoglycoproteins. In order to evaluate the influence of sugar and label density as well as coupling mode of the carbohydrate moiety to the carrier protein for lectin localization in histopathology, four different types of neoglycoproteins, carrying beta-galactosides or alpha- and beta-anomers of N-acetyl-D-galactosamine were employed to reveal the presence of specific receptors in invasive ductal mammary carcinomas with propensity for metastasis formation. Staining of tumor cells was more intense than staining of normal cell types. Coupling of the diazo derivatives of p-aminophenyl glycosides led in most cases to the relatively highest extent of staining in terms of number of stained cells and staining intensity. Classified next according to these categories attachment of sugars via p-isothiocyanato derivatives or via an aliphatic linker after his reaction with the C6-hydroxyl group of the sugar moiety was rather equally well effective, whereas reductive amination with concomitant ring opening at the reducing end of the disaccharide lactose resulted in neoglycoproteins, yielding the lowest extent of staining. The alpha-anomer is preferred as a ligand to endogenous lectins of tumor cells to the beta-anomer of N-acetyl-D-galactosamine. To reduce the number of steps in glycohistochemical processing, glycosylated enzymes were successfully employed. They also allowed to measure the lectin density on breast carcinoma cells, leading to rational selection for demonstrated lectin-mediated targeting of neoglycoprotein-hematoporphyrin conjugates. Immobilization of ligands as an approach to prepare histochemically valuable reagents to localize respective receptors is not confined to tumor lectinology, as emphasized by additional application of hormone-protein conjugates, termed neohormoproteins.