A group from Department of Breast Oncology, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, etc. has reported that Tamoxifen (TAM)-resistant breast cancer cells bind to WFA lectin which recognizes LacdiNAc glycan.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9409572/
Some breast cancers require estrogen (female hormone) for the growth of cancer cells, and account for 60-70% of all breast cancers. Anti-estrogen drugs (tamoxifen), which suppress the action of estrogen, are expected to be effective against such types of breast cancer that proliferate with estrogen. However, some breast cancer cells result in developing resistance to tamoxifen.
Glycosylation is a major post-translational modification of proteins through the sequential action of glycosyltransferases, and alterations in glycosylation are well known to be associated with carcinogenesis, malignant progression and metastasis.
Therefore, in this study, it was investigated the glycan profiles of TAM-resistant human breast cancer cells were evaluated by using lectin microarrays, to investigate whether changes in glycosylation can be used as predictive biomarkers for endocrine therapy.
As a result, it was shown that TAM-resistant breast cancer cells have LacdiNAc glycosylation and strongly react with WFA lectin.
