Department of Virology and Immunology, National Institute for Health Development, 11619 Tallinn, Estonia.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Oct 27;22(21):11608. doi: 10.3390/ijms222111608.
Over the past decades, a large amount of data has been accumulated in various subfields of glycobiology. However, much clinically relevant data and many tools are still not widely used in medicine. Synthetic glycoconjugates with the known structure of glycans are an accurate tool for the study of glycan-binding proteins. We used polyacrylamide glycoconjugates (PGs) including PGs with tumour-associated glycans (TAGs) in immunoassays to assess the prognostic potential of the serum level of anti-glycan antibodies (AG Abs) in gastrointestinal cancer patients and found an association of AG Abs with survival. The specificity of affinity-isolated AG Abs was investigated using synthetic and natural glycoconjugates. AG Abs showed mainly a low specificity to tumour-associated and tumour-derived mucins; therefore, the protective role of the examined circulating AG Abs against cancer remains a challenge. In this review, our findings are analysed and discussed in the context of the contribution of bacteria to the AG Abs stimulus and cancer progression. Examples of the influence of pathogenic bacteria colonising tumours on cancer progression and patient survival through mechanisms of interaction with tumours and dysregulated immune response are considered. The possibilities and problems of the integrative study of AG Abs and the microbiome using high-performance technologies are discussed.
在过去的几十年中，糖生物学的各个子领域积累了大量的数据。然而，许多临床相关的数据和工具仍然没有在医学中广泛应用。具有已知聚糖结构的合成糖缀合物是研究糖结合蛋白的精确工具。我们在免疫测定中使用了聚丙酰胺糖缀合物（PGs），包括具有肿瘤相关聚糖（TAGs）的 PGs，以评估胃肠道癌症患者血清中抗聚糖抗体（AG Abs）的预后潜力，并发现 AG Abs 与生存相关。使用合成和天然糖缀合物研究了亲和分离的 AG Abs 的特异性。AG Abs 对肿瘤相关和肿瘤衍生粘蛋白的特异性主要较低；因此，检查循环 AG Abs 对癌症的保护作用仍然是一个挑战。在这篇综述中，我们的研究结果在细菌对 AG Abs 刺激和癌症进展的贡献的背景下进行了分析和讨论。考虑了定植在肿瘤中的致病性细菌通过与肿瘤相互作用和失调的免疫反应机制影响癌症进展和患者生存的例子。讨论了使用高性能技术整合研究 AG Abs 和微生物组的可能性和问题。
