Scientists Identify Enzyme Linked to Colon Cancer

In other words, the glycan modifications changed the patterns in which cells stuck together, leading the cells to develop as something that looked more like a tumour than a healthy tissue.

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Understanding the role that sugar-modified (glycosylated) proteins play in healthy and cancerous cells is an emerging area of cancer biology that may lead to new therapies.

Wandall's team studied a group of 20 enzymes that initiate the first step in a particular kind of glycan modification, called GalNAc-type O-glycosylation, found on diverse proteins.

These enzymes, called GalNAc transferases (GalNAc-Ts) are variously found in different amounts in different tissues, but their functions are poorly understood.

Wandall's team found that one of the GalNAc-Ts, called GalNAc-T6, was absent in healthy colon tissue but abundant in colon cancer cells.

Source: IANS