Premium
Re‐assessment of acidic glycosphingolpids in small‐cell‐lung‐cancer tissues and cell lines
Author(s) -
Gnewuch Carsten,
Jaques Gabriele,
Havemann Klaus,
Wiegandt Herbert
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910570727
Subject(s) - antigen , monoclonal antibody , ganglioside , cancer , in vivo , cancer research , immunotherapy , medicine , lung cancer , pathology , antibody , small cell lung carcinoma , immunology , biology , small cell carcinoma , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology
The occurrence of tumor‐associated glycosphingolipids (GSLs) has been documented in a variety of cancer tissues (Hakomori, 1984, 1985, 1989). In the case of small‐cell lung cancer (SCLC), the monosialoganglioside IVFuc‐IINeuAc‐Gg 4 Cer (Fuc‐GMI; short notations of gangliosides are according to Svennerholm, 1963), first described from bovine liver (Wiegandt, 1973), was found to be a unique tumor‐associated GSL (Nilsson et al., 1984). It is present in up to 90% of all SCLC cases as compared with 25% frequency in non‐SCLC, and no occurrence in normal lung (Brezicka et al., 1989, 1992). Thus, Fuc‐GMI may represent a suitable target antigen for immunotherapy of SCLC, and successful experiments have been performed showing tumor‐cell killing by monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against Fuc‐GMI, both in vitro and, in a mouse model, in vivo (Brezicka et al., 1991). However, an effective tumor vaccination in humans would require this antigen to be expressed by the primary tumor and also by all metastases. The co‐expression of Fuc‐GMI has already been reported in primary tumors and in most but not all metastases of SCLC (Hanqing et al., 1986; Nilsson et al., 1986; Breicka et al., 1989). In view of the significance this ganglioside may have for possible immunotherapeutical approaches to SCLC and of the difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of samples for analysis, a re‐assessment of Fuc‐GMI expression was made in SCLC primary tumors and their metastases, as well as in established SCLC cell lines. In addition, the possible presence of such gangliosides, that might help to explain the selective tetanus‐toxin binding of SCLC cells (Critchley et al., 1986; Heymanns et al., 1989) was investigated. Finally, the typical occurrence of sulfatide in all SCLC tissues and cell lines could be established.