Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0178874 (tumor progression)
 40,807 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The literature on tumor distinctive markers in ovarian cancer has been reviewed. Various immunological and biochemical approaches have been attempted for the diagnosis and management of patients with ovarian cancer. The complex spectrum of antigens that can be detected in human ovarian cancer consists of several tumor-associated antigens, fetal or carcinoembryonic antigens, carcinoplacental markers, and normal tissue antigens. We have described and partially characterized two ovarian tumor-associated antigens designated as OCAA and OCAA-1, which seem to have potential for the immunodiagnosis of ovarian cancer. Several other investigators have carried out similar studies, but in general their serological characterization of these antigens has been limited. The well-defined embryonic proteins that have been examined in the ovarian cancer include carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), alpha-fetoprotein (alpha-fp), beta-oncofetal antigen (BOFA), Regan and Nagao isoenzymes and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). The presence of pregnancy-zone protein (PZP) has also been reported in ovarian cancer. In addition, several normal tissue components include fibrin-fibrinogen degradation products (FDP), alpha 1-globulin, and urokinase have been found associated with ovarian cancer. Both humoral antibodies and cell-mediated immune responses against tumor-associated antigens can be measured in ovarian cancer patients. In addition, serum factors, which block cellular immune reactions, have been identified. However, progress in this area has been hampered by the complexity of the antigens associated with ovarian tumors and the lack of standardized, well-characterized sources of antigens or target cells. Enzymes, especially those involved in glycoprotein biosynthesis, (eg, glycoprotein:glycosyltransferases and glycosidase) have been explored as possible early biochemical indicators of ovarian neoplasia. A serum specific deficiency of alpha-L-fucosidase has been found in patients with ovarian cancers. Of all the glycoprotein:glycosyltransferases studied, galactosyltransferase has been found to be the best enzyme marker for ovarian adenocarcinoma. The determination of serum levels of this enzyme reflected the clinical status of the patient with respect of tumor progression as well as tumor burden. Recently, assay of a phosphodiesterase, which specifically hydrolyzes cytidine 5'-monophospho-N-acetylneuraminic acid, has been found promising in the detection and management of patients with ovarian cancer.
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PMID:Tumor markers for ovarian cancer. 9 53

Glycosylation of proteins plays multiple roles in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Fucose is a monosaccharide associated with glycosylation events and is known to be over-expressed in many malignant tumors. By using alpha-L-fucosidase (alpha-L-fase), a glycosidase that specifically removes alpha-L-fucose (alpha-L-f), we have examined the potential effects of defucosylation on tumor functions, focusing on tumor progression in the context of the interaction of tumor cells with the extracellular microenvironment. In this submission, we report that alpha-L-fase treatment decreases, in static assays, tumor cell adhesion to a wide variety of ECM components including fibronectin, laminin, collagen I, hyaluronic acid and the complex human biomatrix, HuBiogel(R). By immunofluorescence, co-localization of beta1 integrin and alpha-L-f was found to decrease accordingly. Sialyl Lewis X, an alpha-L-f-containing tetrasaccharide, which modulates the rolling of leukocytes and tumor cells on endothelium, was found to be diminished on human breast cancer cells after alpha-L-fase treatment. Using a dynamic flow chamber system, we were able to determine that defucosylation impaired the rolling of mammary cancer cells on human umbilical vein endothelial cells while significantly increasing their flow speed. Further, the rolling capability of these defucosylated tumor cells was also impaired on purified E and P-selectin matrices. Based on these data, we hypothesize that decreased fucosylation impairs the interaction between tumor cells and their external milieu, which in turn, affects key cell functions modulating tumor progression. Building on our previous studies which demonstrated alpha-L-fase decreased tumor cell invasion while significantly reducing MMP-9 activity, when added to the fact that decreased adhesion on HUVEC occurs in the presence of alpha-L-fase also leads us to propose that defucosylation may modulate metastasis, and thus provides a promising additional glycobiotic target for novel therapies.
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PMID:Alterations in human breast cancer adhesion-motility in response to changes in cell surface glycoproteins displaying alpha-L-fucose moieties. 1836 Jul 7