Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S), University of Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology (IPATIMUP), University of Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
Cells. 2021 Jan 8;10(1):109. doi: 10.3390/cells10010109.
Glycans are major constituents of extracellular vesicles (EVs). Alterations in the glycosylation pathway are a common feature of cancer cells, which gives rise to de novo or increased synthesis of particular glycans. Therefore, glycans and glycoproteins have been widely used in the clinic as both stratification and prognosis cancer biomarkers. Interestingly, several of the known tumor-associated glycans have already been identified in cancer EVs, highlighting EV glycosylation as a potential source of circulating cancer biomarkers. These particles are crucial vehicles of cell-cell communication, being able to transfer molecular information and to modulate the recipient cell behavior. The presence of particular glycoconjugates has been described to be important for EV protein sorting, uptake and organ-tropism. Furthermore, specific EV glycans or glycoproteins have been described to be able to distinguish tumor EVs from benign EVs. In this review, the application of EV glycosylation in the development of novel EV detection and capture methodologies is discussed. In addition, we highlight the potential of EV glycosylation in the clinical setting for both cancer biomarker discovery and EV therapeutic delivery strategies.
聚糖是细胞外囊泡 (EV) 的主要成分。糖基化途径的改变是癌细胞的一个共同特征,导致特定聚糖的从头合成或增加。因此,聚糖和糖蛋白已被广泛用作临床分层和预后癌症生物标志物。有趣的是,几种已知的肿瘤相关聚糖已在癌症 EV 中被鉴定出来,这突显了 EV 糖基化作为循环癌症生物标志物的潜在来源。这些颗粒是细胞间通讯的重要载体,能够传递分子信息并调节受体细胞的行为。已经描述了特定糖缀合物的存在对于 EV 蛋白分拣、摄取和器官趋向性很重要。此外,已经描述了特定的 EV 聚糖或糖蛋白能够区分肿瘤 EV 和良性 EV。在这篇综述中,讨论了 EV 糖基化在新型 EV 检测和捕获方法发展中的应用。此外,我们强调了 EV 糖基化在临床环境中的潜力,用于癌症生物标志物的发现和 EV 治疗性递药策略。
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