Biochemical

Pharmacology 1998, 55: 1673–1681.CrossRefPubMed 23. Francis RJ, Sharma SK, Springer C, Green AJ, Hope-Stone MLD, Sena ML, Martin J, Adamson KL, Robbins A, Gumbrell L, O’Malley D, Tsiompanou E, Shahbakhti H, Webley S, Hochhauser D, Hilson AJ, Blakey D, Begent RHJ: A phase I trial of antibody directed enzyme prodrug therapy (ADEPT) in patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma or other CEA producing tumours. Br J Cancer 2002, 87: 600–7.CrossRefPubMed 24. Carmicle S, Dai G, Steede NK, Landry SJ: Proteolytic Sensitivity and Helper T-cell Epitope Immunodominance Associated with the Mobile Loop in Hsp10s. J Biol Chem 2002, 277: 155–160.CrossRefPubMed 25. Landry SJ: Local protein instability predictive of helper T-cell epitopes. Immunol Today 1997, 18: 527–532.CrossRefPubMed Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions SA designed and carried AZD5582 out all the experiments, and drafted the manuscript. TO and AMW participated in the design of the study. SLM envisioned the overall study and drafted the manuscript. All authors

read and approved the manuscript.”
“Background The glycocalyx is composed of a broad variety of sugars that play a crucial role in the communication of cells with the microenvironment. Neuraminic sialic acids are 9-carbon sugars typically found in the glycocalyx that take part ON-01910 concentration in the modulation of malignant cell behaviour [1, 2]. They are usually found as a terminal component of Mocetinostat molecular weight different membrane glycoconjugates, such as glycoproteins or glycolipids. Major examples are mucins and gangliosides, both implicated in the modulation of cell behaviour [3, 4]. The most common sialic acids Anacetrapib in mammals are N-acetylneuraminic (NeuAc) and N-glycolylneuraminic (NeuGc) acids. The only structural difference between them consists of a single oxygen atom at the C-5 position of NeuGc catalyzed by the cytidine monophospho-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase (CMAH)

[5]. While NeuGc is expressed in most somatic mouse cells, there is nearly no information regarding its expression in mouse cancer tissues [6]. Few reports suggest a null presence of this sugar in murine malignant cells. Mucins are large molecular weight glycoproteins characterized by carbohydrate sugars attached via O-glycosidic linkages to serine or threonine, synthesized by a variety of secretory epithelial tissues as membrane-bound or secreted proteins. Characteristically, mucins present sialic acids as part of their sugar repertoire. In particular, the minor type of the bovine submaxillary mucin (BSM) presents a high concentration of NeuGc in its arborization [7]. It is well described that cells can process exogenous sialic acids from the extracellular environment and use them for their own glycoconjugates [8, 9].