Researchers have identified an enzyme that appears to drive the conversion of normal colon tissue into cancer by attaching sugar molecules, or glycans, to certain proteins in the cell. The research, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, showed that the enzyme was absent in healthy colon tissue but abundant in colon cancer cells. In other words, the glycan modifications changed the patterns in which cells stuck together, leading the cells to develop as something that looked more like a tumour than a healthy tissue. Understanding the role that sugar-modified (glycosylated) proteins play in healthy and cancerous cells is an emerging area of cancer biology that may lead to new therapies. Wandall’s team found that one of the GalNAc-Ts, called GalNAc-T6, was absent in healthy colon tissue but abundant in colon cancer cells.

Source: Hindustan Times January 27, 2018 09:11 UTC