Dr. Fernando
José Irazoqui Adjunt Professor, School Chemical of Science, National University of Cordoba.
CONICET Adjunt Researcher
TE: 0351- 4334168/71 int. 234/5
Fax: 351-4334074
e-mail: irazoqui@dqb.fcq.unc.edu.ar
Biological Chemistry Department, Chemical Science School, National University of Cordoba, Haya de la Torre s/n University Campus, 5000 Cordoba, Argentina.
Related Thomsen-Friedenreich disaccharide molecules as ligand of lectins and immunogen of antibodies
Glycans play a central and crucial role in a range of biological phenomena, since carbohydrate-protein recognition is involved in many functions of multicellular organisms. Cancer-associated mucins show frequent alterations of their oligosaccharide chain profile, with a switch to unmask normally cryptic O-glycan backbone and core regions. Epithelial tumor cells typically show over-expression of uncovered Gal b 1-3GalNAc a -O-Ser/Thr (Core 1) structure, known as T antigen or Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen, the oligosaccharide chain of which is called Thomsen-Friedenreich disaccharide (TFD). T antigen expression has been associated with immunosuppression, metastasis dissemination, and proliferation of cancer cells. Our group is interested to study role of related TFD structures in tumor cell proliferation and metastasis adhesion. Lectins, carbohydrate-binding proteins, are proteins that decipher the sugar code. The function of lectins during these processes will be studied. Also, synthetic glycoconjugates and antibodies against related TFD structures are in development with the purpose to reduce the proliferation and adhesion of epithelial tumor cells.
