Biological bases of glycans as cancer biomarkers and therapeutics

2^nd International Summit on Integrative Biology

August 04-05, 2014 Hilton-Chicago/Northbrook, Chicago, USA

Lijuan Zhang

Accepted Abstracts: J Comput Sci Syst Biol

Abstract :

Glycans are assembled by non-template driven process and have potential chemical information orders of magnitude greater than their protein and nucleic acid counterparts. Three most common types of glycans made by all animal cells are glycosaminoglycans and N- or O-linked glycans. Cancer is a complex disease marked by uncontrollable tumor growth with prominent changes both in glycan compositions and structures in glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and glycolipids. As a result, most clinically approved circulating cancer biomarkers are either glycans or glycoproteins. One of glycan-based drugs, heparin, has been used as a major anticoagulant clinically for 79 years. At present, nine heparin-based drugs including eight types of low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs), i.e. chemically or enzymatically cleaved heparin with reduced chain length, and chemically synthesized heparin pentasaccharide fondaparinux take up over 85% of the global heparin market. Enoxaparin (lovenox), the number 3 world market-share holder of LMWHs, is the 22 nd best selling drugs with an annual sale of $3.1 billion in the US in 2007. Glycan-based drugs, blood circulating glycans, and their biological implications along with two relatively simple and reliable assays developed based on the knowledge of glycomics to identify glycan-based biomarker for cancer diagnosis will be discussed.

Biography :

G lycans are assembled by non-template driven process and have potential chemical information orders of magnitude greater than their protein and nucleic acid counterparts. Three most common types of glycans made by all animal cells are glycosaminoglycans and N- or O-linked glycans. Cancer is a complex disease marked by uncontrollable tumor growth with prominent changes both in glycan compositions and structures in glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and glycolipids. As a result, most clinically approved circulating cancer biomarkers are either glycans or glycoproteins. One of glycan-based drugs, heparin, has been used as a major anticoagulant clinically for 79 years. At present, nine heparin-based drugs including eight types of low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs), i.e. chemically or enzymatically cleaved heparin with reduced chain length, and chemically synthesized heparin pentasaccharide fondaparinux take up over 85% of the global heparin market. Enoxaparin (lovenox), the number 3 world market-share holder of LMWHs, is the 22 nd best selling drugs with an annual sale of $3.1 billion in the US in 2007. Glycan-based drugs, blood circulating glycans, and their biological implications along with two relatively simple and reliable assays developed based on the knowledge of glycomics to identify glycan-based biomarker for cancer diagnosis will be discussed.