Carbohydrate tumor cells

Various studies have shown the toxicity of various free monosaccharides towards mammalian cells. L-Fucose was found to inhibit the growth of some cells in culture, but only at high doses,292 and to inhibit the growth of implanted, mammary tumors in rats.293 In an examination of the effect of 93 carbohydrates on cell proliferation,294 D-fucose was one of the 42 that were toxic or growth-inhibitory, but the effect of L-fucose was not reported. The inhibitory effect of L-fucose in implanted, mammary tumors293 was considered to be accompanied by its incorporation into serum glycoproteins, and this would offer a possible explanation for some of its biological properties. 

Finally, an interesting example has been reported in the syntheses of new photoreactive neoglycolipid probes carrying carbohydrate determinants specific for some murine mammary adenocarcinoma cells for the study of lectin receptors on tumor cell surfaces.71... 

Carbohydrate tumor marker tumor-related antigen GM3 1998 A Detection level of <10 cells, melanoma cells diluted in 2 million healthy blood lymphocytes Zhang et al. [96]... 

Fukuda M (1994) Carbohydrate-mediate adhesion of tumor cells. In Bock K (ed) Complex carbohydrates in drug research, Alfred Benzon Symposium. Mungsgaard, Copenhagen, p 353... 

T. Hofmann, O. Frank, M. Kemeny, E. Bernardy, M. Habermeyer, U. Weyand, S. Meiers, and D. Marko, Studies on the inhibition of tumor cell growth and microtubule assembly by 3-hydroxy-4-[( )-(2-furyl)methylidene]methyl-3-cyclopentene-l,2-dione, an intensely colored Maillard product formed from carbohydrates and L-proline, in G, 2002, 401-402. 

Some gangliosides of the globo series (Globo-H, sLcx hexasaccharyl ceramide, etc.) are useful cancer cell markers because they are elevated in the membranes of certain types of tumor cells such as melanomas and metastatic brain tumors. A number of GSLs play a role as tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs)... 

Targeted delivery has also been used to investigate the structure of carbohydrates needed to obtain discrimination of cellular uptake between liver and tumor cells [184], A study was performed by doubly modifying BSA with both a fluorophore (via Lys isothiocyanate derivatization) and different fucose derivatives (via Tyr diazotization). Similar studies have used EDC-mediated coupling to also attach therapeutic agents for delivery to human embryonal carcinoma cells [185]. 

A variety of data have implicated cell surface glycoconjugates and endogenous lectins that can bind to oligosaccharide sequences as key structural determinants of the tumor cells that participate in cell interactions during the metastatic process. The pioneering work of Tao and Burger clearly demonstrated that alterations of cell surface carbohydrates in variants of murine B16 melanoma cells. 

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