Jaulang Hwang
Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
Title: Tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen, Tn, as a cancer prognosis marker and therapeutic target
Biography
Biography: Jaulang Hwang
Abstract
Elevated expression of tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) is associated with various cancers. A variety of malignant and normal tissues have been screened by immunochemistry using antibodies against TACAs. Overexpression of TATAs (tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens) has been observed on the cell surface of many malignant tumors. The Tn antigen (GalNAc-Ser/Thr) is one member of TACAs presented as mucin-type carbohydrates. Using the LAE vaccine technology (Linear Array Epitope), we have developed an anti-Tn vaccine, which induces anti-Tn antibodies with high specificity and high affinity in mice. Using the anti-Tn antibody, we have demonstrated that the expression of Tn is positively correlated with the degree of malignancy in prostate, breast, colon, cervical,oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and pancreas cancers. In the case of OSCC, the expression of Tn was positively correlated with staging recurrence, and distant metastasis as well as withinvasive pattern grading score (IPGS). The results suggest that Tn expression may serve as a reliable indicator for OSCC prognosis evaluation. Our studies have also demonstrated that anti-Tn vaccine can protect against spontaneous prostate cancer formation in transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP) mice. Together, our results show that tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen, Tn, can serve as a cancer prognosis marker and therapeutic target.
