Abstract
The O-glycan branching enzyme, core2 β-1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (C2GnT) forms O-glycans containing a branch of β-1,6-linkage of N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylgalctosamine (core2 O-glycans) on cell-surface glycoproteins. It was reported that expression of C2GnT, a key enzyme for core2 O-glycans expression, was closely correlated with high-metastatic phenotypes of numbers of cancers. Recently, it has been revealed that C2GnT-expressing cancer cells synthesize core2 O-glycans which have immunosuppressive functions against natural killer (NK) cell immunity by using their cell-surface core2 O-glycans, resulting in acquiring high-metastatic phenotypes. C2GnT-expressing cancer cells have two different types of immunosuppressive functions against NK cell immunity, molecular shield and tumor-ligand masking. Here, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the detailed molecular mechanisms of those immunosuppressive functions of core2 O-glycans.
