Glycobiology of tumors

Altered glycosylation pattern is a hallmark of the tumor phenotype. These changes include both the under- and overexpression of naturally occurring glycans, as well as the neoexpression of specific “tumor-associated” glycans. Thus glycoproteins carrying such tumor-associated glycan structures represent attractive targets for cancer diagnosis and therapy.  Since these aberrant protein-bound glycans are potent antigens, immunotherapy targeting these glycan-based neoantigens is particularly promising.

Current projects

Funding

Publications / Output

Kopitz J, Xiao Q, Ludwig AK, Romero A, Michalak M, Sherman SE, Zhou X, Dazen C, Vértesy S, Kaltner H, Klein ML, Gabius HJ, Percec V. Reaction of a Programmable Glycan Presentation of Glycodendrimersomes and Cells with Engineered Human Lectins To Show the Sugar Functionality of the Cell Surface. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Nov 13;56(46):14677-14681. PMID: 28940633

Ahadova A, Gebert J, von Knebel Doeberitz M, Kopitz J, Kloor M. Dose-dependent effect of 2-deoxy-D-glucose on glycoprotein mannosylation in cancer cells. IUBMB Life. 2015 Mar;67(3):218-26.

Kopitz J. Lipid glycosylation: a primer for histochemists and cell biologists. Histochem Cell Biol. 2017 Feb;147(2):175-198. Review. PMID: 27999995

Lee J, Katzenmaier EM, Kopitz J, Gebert J. Reconstitution of TGFBR2 in HCT116 colorectal cancer cells causes increased LFNG expression and enhanced N-acetyl-d-glucosamine incorporation into Notch1. Cell Signal. 2016 Aug;28(8):1105-13. Epub 2016 May 5. PMID: 27156840

Lee J, Warnken U, Schnölzer M, Gebert J, Kopitz J. A new method for detection of tumor driver-dependent changes of protein sialylation in a colon cancer cell line reveals nectin-3 as TGFBR2 target. Protein Sci. 2015 Oct;24(10):1686-94. doi: 10.1002/pro.2741. Epub 2015 Jul 30. PMID: 26177744

Gebert J, Kloor M, Lee J, Lohr M, André S, Wagner R, Kopitz J, Gabius HJ. Colonic carcinogenesis along different genetic routes: glycophenotyping of tumor cases separated by microsatellite instability/stability. Histochem Cell Biol. 2012 Aug;138(2):339-50. PMID: 22565205

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