Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jennifer Munkley, Professor David Elliott
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Nature Publishing Group, 2016.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Prostate cancer is a unique and heterogeneous disease. Currently, a major unmet clinical need exists to develop biomarkers that enable indolent disease to be distinguished from aggressive disease. The prostate is an abundant secretor of glycoproteins of all types, and alterations in glycans are, therefore, attractive as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Despite progress over the past decade in profiling the genome and proteome, the prostate cancer glycoproteome remains relatively understudied. A wide range of alterations in the glycoproteins on prostate cancer cells can occur, including increased sialylation and fucosylation, increased O-beta-N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) conjugation, the emergence of cryptic and high-mannose N-glycans and alterations to proteoglycans. Glycosylation can alter protein function and has a key role in many important biological processes in cancer including cell adhesion, migration, interactions with the cell matrix, immune surveillance, cell signalling and cellular metabolism; altered glycosylation in prostate cancer might modify some, or all of these processes. In the past three years, powerful tools such as glycosylation-specific antibodies and glycosylation gene signatures have been developed, which enable detailed analyses of changes in glycosylation. Thus, emerging data on these often overlooked modifications have the potential to improve risk stratification and therapeutic strategies in patients with prostate cancer.
Author(s): Munkley J, Mills IG, Elliott DJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nature Reviews Urology
Year: 2016
Volume: 13
Issue: 6
Pages: 324-333
Print publication date: 01/06/2016
Online publication date: 19/04/2016
Acceptance date: 12/01/2016
Date deposited: 20/05/2016
ISSN (print): 1759-4812
ISSN (electronic): 1759-4820
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2016.65
DOI: 10.1038/nrurol.2016.65
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric