Lung Cancer and Glycosylation

Lung cancer has been the main cause of cancer death in the past few decades. Moreover, according to authoritative statistics, lung cancer ranks top for its incidence among malignant tumors. In most instances, glycogen is the main source of carbohydrate storage, and its degradation products are closely connected to central carbon metabolism. Lately, abnormal glycogen accumulation has been detected in lung tumors and promoted lung cancer progression.

Fig.1 Nuclear glycogenolysis modulates histone acetylation in human non-small cell lung cancers. (Sun, et al., 2019)

Glycogene Discovery Service in Lung Cancer

CD BioGlyco provides Cancer Glycogene Discovery Services for clients to study the cancer. Besides cancer glycogene discovery services, CD BioGlyco also offers Glycogene Editing Services and Glycogene Delivery Services for the generation of a better custom research proposal for our clients. Meanwhile, we exemplify the summary of glycogenes involved in lung cancer.

• Discovery methods
  • Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI): To reveal heterogeneous glycogen metabolism in nonsmall cell lung cancer through visualizing glycogen structure.
  • Liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS): To detect early lung cancer diagnostic biomarkers and levels of plasma metabolites.
  • A novel nuclear-specific tracer technology (pure nuclei preparations and stable isotope tracers) coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry: To trace nuclear glycogen metabolism.
  • Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) with next-generation sequencing (NGS) to measure glycogene expression of the same cell lines to uncover differences in the expression of glycoproteins between normal and cancer cells.
• Summary of glycogenes involved in lung cancer
  • GALNT7 (a glycosyltransferase)
    The amino acid 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid is commonly known as taurine. It could inhibit the potential invasion and metastasis.
  • 2-Deoxy-Glucose (2DG)
    It could lead to suppression of N-linked glycosylation, add to oxidative stress, and inhibit cell growth and invasion.
  • Spermine N¹-acetyltransferase (SSAT)
    It is the pivotal protein involved in the homeostasis and synthesis of spermidine, which plays a particular role in maintaining the membrane potential and regulating cell volume. SSAT is upregulated in lung cancer.
  • Proline Dehydrogenase (PRODH)
    It promotes lung cancer tumorigenesis by eliciting the expression of IKKα-dependent inflammatory genes and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
  • L-kynurenine
    High levels of l-kynurenine could provide a microenvironment for lung tumor growth by initiating T-cell apoptosis, inhibiting T-cell proliferation, and leading to immune tolerance.
  • Laforin
    Laforin is a glucan phosphatase that plays a key role in glycogen phosphorylation and glycogen degradation. Deletion of Epm2a (the gene that encodes laforin) leads to increased tumor burden and accumulation of hyperphosphorylated intratumoral glycogen.

Fig.2 Glycogene discovery in lung cancer. (CD BioGlyco)

Applications

• Identifying the unique molecular features that drive disease progression within distinct tumor subtypes is a critical step in lung cancer research that could advance the study of lung cancer biology.
• Transcriptome analyses making use of both qRT-PCR array and RNA-Seq in association with glycome and glycoproteome analyses can be applied to distinguish glyco-biomarkers.
• The NGS-based transcriptome analysis can be used to detect the expression levels of glycogenes.

Advantages

• These methods bring a more accurate, quick, and integrated application tool for early lung cancer study.
• Provide customized services to help clients complete their projects efficiently.
• We process professional laboratory teams to provide professional solutions.

CD BioGlyco provides custom cancer glycogene discovery services for our clients. If you have any questions or require details information, please feel free to contact us.