Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S), University of Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto (IPATIMUP), 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
Biomolecules. 2021 Jan 21;11(2):136. doi: 10.3390/biom11020136.
In an era when cancer glycobiology research is exponentially growing, we are witnessing a progressive translation of the major scientific findings to the clinical practice with the overarching aim of improving cancer patients' management. Many mechanistic cell biology studies have demonstrated that heparan sulfate (HS) glycosaminoglycans are key molecules responsible for several molecular and biochemical processes, impacting extracellular matrix properties and cellular functions. HS can interact with a myriad of different ligands, and therefore, hold a pleiotropic role in regulating the activity of important cellular receptors and downstream signalling pathways. The aberrant expression of HS glycan chains in tumours determines main malignant features, such as cancer cell proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis. In this review, we devote particular attention to HS biological activities, its expression profile and modulation in cancer. Moreover, we highlight HS clinical potential to improve both diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, either as HS-based biomarkers or as therapeutic targets.
在癌症糖生物学研究呈指数级增长的时代，我们看到主要的科学发现逐渐转化为临床实践，其首要目标是改善癌症患者的治疗效果。许多机制细胞生物学研究表明，肝素硫酸酯（HS）糖胺聚糖是负责多种分子和生化过程的关键分子，影响细胞外基质的性质和细胞功能。HS 可以与许多不同的配体相互作用，因此在调节重要细胞受体和下游信号通路的活性方面具有多效性作用。肿瘤中 HS 聚糖链的异常表达决定了主要的恶性特征，如癌细胞增殖、血管生成、侵袭和转移。在这篇综述中，我们特别关注 HS 的生物学活性、在癌症中的表达谱和调控。此外，我们还强调了 HS 在改善癌症的诊断和预后方面的临床潜力，无论是作为基于 HS 的生物标志物还是作为治疗靶点。
