Missing Link in Cancers and Autoimmune Disease with Renal Failure in Glycosylation

Abstract

Glycans, which are the carbohydrate moieties in glycoconjugates, tightly regulate biological events. Over decades of studies have demonstrated the relationship between glycans and human health diseases. The altered glycosylation, tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs), plays crucial roles in facilitating tumor malignancy in many types of human carcinomas. Such abnormal glycosylation patterns are not solely seen in cancers, but also in congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDGs), neurological diseases, and autoimmune diseases such as IgA nephropathy in human tissues with completely different mechanisms. Here, we discuss focusing on a highly relevant TACA of truncated mucin-type O-GalNAc glycan, the Tn antigen that affects disease courses in both cancers and IgA nephropathy in comprehensive manners.