Liver Cancer and Glycosylation

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the main cause of cancer deaths worldwide, which is the leading type of primary liver cancer. At present, treatments for HCC mainly consist of surgery, chemotherapy, radiofrequency ablation, and liver transplantation, all of which are not always satisfactory. Due to the high heterogeneity of tumors, patients with HCC have a poor prognosis and high mortality, with a 5-year survival rate of 18%. Therefore, it is necessary to excavate more effective prognostic biomarkers for therapeutic targets and clinical decisions. Glycosylation is a complex form of protein modification in the biological process that inserts sugar chains into macromolecules such as proteins, DNA, and lipids, which directly leads to the mutation or inactivation of biological macromolecules. Aberrant glycosylation directly impacts key processes supporting tumor progression and metastasis. Sustained high glucose can produce irreversible toxic products, thereby accelerating HCC proliferation and metastasis.

Fig.1 Representation depicting the glycolytic pathway in liver tumors. (Lee, et al., 2018)

Glycogene Discovery Service in Liver Cancer at CD BioGlyco

HCC is the main cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Glycosylation is a ubiquitous and important post-translational modification. More and more evidence shows that the glycosylation pattern in tumors is significantly changed, and abnormal glycosylation patterns are used as diagnostic biomarkers or therapeutic targets.

• Discovery methods
  • Next-generation sequencing (NGS) transcriptome analysis: To measure the expression levels of glycogenes to uncover differences in the expression of glycoproteins between normal and cancer cells.
  • Immunohistochemistry and the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR): To detect the expression of the protein in normal and HCC tissues.
  • Bioinformatics analysis: To identify the glycosylation-related genes.
  • Glycoproteomics techniques: Mass spectrometry (MS)
• Liver cancer and glycogene

Applications

• Glycosylation is helpful for prognostic recognition, immune efficacy evaluation, and substance metabolism in HCC, meanwhile, it provides a novel view for therapeutic target prediction and clinical decision-making.
• Clarify the scientific research application and clinical application of sugar chain markers in the field of diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases, to better serve patients.
• Sugar chains are used as good biomarkers for the management of the whole course of tumors and help precision medicine.

Advantages

• The detection of glycoprotein-specific glycans improves the specificity of detection, reduces the proportion of false negatives in the screening process, and prevents the delay in diagnosis of these patients.
• The combination of complementary use of differential glycoprotein markers and existing diagnostic markers maximizes their advantages in early screening and diagnosis of HCC.

CD BioGlyco provides comprehensive Cancer Glycogene Discovery Services for our clients with advanced and innovative technology. After understanding the needs of our clients, we develop a detailed plan and maintain close communication with them. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us for more details.