Ricerc@Sapienza

Aberrant glycosylation represents an important modification that occurs in cancer cells during tumor progression and that favors invasion and metastatic spread. The aberrant expression of truncated O-glycans appeared to be the most widely diffuse change in glycosylation pattern present in epithelial cancer tissues. The expression of truncated T (Galß1-3GalNAc¿1-O-Ser/Thr), STn (NeuAc¿2-6GalNAc¿1-O-Ser/Thr) and Tn (GalNAc¿1-O-Ser/Thr) carbohydrate moieties are associated with poor prognosis and low survival of cancer patient and they are also used as biomarkers to predict prognosis and to follow the progression disease.
Ovarian cancer (OC) is characterized by the presence of several STn- and Tn- glycoproteins that are released by the cells and that are commonly use as biomarkers. The mucin MUC16 (CA125) and MUC1 (CA15.3) represent optimal models of altered glycoproteins that are considered a serum ovarian cancer biomarkers to predict malignant progression, although their overexpression is not limited to malignant disease.
Glycoproteins interact with the cell of the immune system through the C-type lectins. MGL, expressed by dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages, is a C-type lectin able to selectively bind to Tn residues. This receptor is involved in the clearance of non-sialylated glycoproteins from bloodstream and in the activation of DCs representing an optimal target for immunotherapy.
The aim of this project is to use the MGL receptor to capture and identified criptic Tn-Tumor Associated Antigens from ovarian cancer that could be used as novel biomarkers for the monitoring of the disease and as immune activators in the setting of the immunotherapy protocols.