Tumor

O-linked beta-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) is a sugar attachment to serine or threonine hydroxyl moieties on nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. O-GlcNAc modified proteins are generally either cytoplasmic or nuclear proteins, and unlike asparagine-linked or mucin-type O-glycosylation, O-GlcNAc is not further processed into a complex oligosaccharide.

CDR2 is a tumor antigen expressed in a high percentage of breast and ovarian tumors and is the target of a naturally occurring tumor immune response in patients with paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration.

SOX2 is a transcription factor that is expressed by self-renewing and multipotent stem cells of the embryonic neuroepithelium. Sox-2 was found to be expressed by dividing neural progenitor cells. Constitutive expression of SOX2 has also been shown to inhibit neuronal differentiation and results in the maintenance of progenitor characteristics.

The p14ARF (Alternative Reading Frame) tumor suppressor is a protein product of the alternative reading frame (ARF) of the human INK4a locus which regulates a series of cell cycle regulatory proteins to promote cell cycle arrest in response to abnormal hyper-proliferative growth stimuli. p14ARF alterations are common in human cancers and, when inherited, confer susceptibility to cutaneous melanoma (1).

MCP1, also known as CCL2, is a small chemokine factor belonging to the CC chemokine family. It is predominantly produced by endothelial cells and macrophages, and specifically is a chemoattractant for monocytes and basophils. It is produced by a wide range of cell types in reaction to diverse inflammatory stimuli including tissue injury, infection, and inflammation.

Carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) is a membrane-associated carbonic anhydrase, strongly induced by hypoxia. CA IX is overexpressed by several cancer cells from many tumor types, and is a component of the pH regulatory system invoked by these cells to combat the deleterious effects of a high rate of glycolytic metabolism.

c-Myc is a well-characterized transcription factor encoded by the c-Myc gene on human chromosome 8q24. This cellular proto-oncogene, also known as p62, is commonly activated in a variety of tumor cells and plays a crucial role in cellular proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and cell cycle progression.

Myosin is a super family of actin based molecular motors that hydrolyze ATP and generate physical force to move specific molecules inside the cell. This super family, divided into at least twenty four classes based on head domain sequence similarity and domain organization^. The processivity of myosins along an actin filament and transport of intracellular ‘cargo’ are achieved by generating physical force from chemical energy of ATP followed by appropriate conformational changes (1).

The polycomb group (PcG) protein, enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is a methyl-transferase that plays a key role in transcriptional gene repression. EZH2 is frequently overexpressed in several malignant tumors, and is often associated with advanced disease stage in many solid tumors.