Pathological and Biological Significance of the Specific Glycan, TRA-1-60, on Aggressive Gastric Adenocarcinoma.

The glycans form a unique complex on the surface of cancer cells and play a pivotal role in tumor progression, impacting proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. TRA-1-60 is a glycan that was identified as a critical marker for the establishment of fully reprogrammed inducible pluripotent stem cells. Its expression has been detected in multiple cancer tissues, including embryonal carcinoma, prostate cancer, and pancreatic cancer, but the biological and pathological characterization of TRA-1-60-expressing tumor cells remains unclear within various types of malignancies.

Selective ablation of TRA-1-60 pluripotent stem cells suppresses tumor growth of prostate cancer.

TRA-1-60 (TRA) is an established transcription factor of embryonic signaling and a well-known marker of pluripotency. It has been implicated in tumorigenesis and metastases, is not expressed in differentiated cells, which makes it an appealing biomarker for immunopositron emission tomography (immunoPET) imaging and radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT). Herein, we explored the clinical implications of TRA in prostate cancer (PCa), examined the potential of TRA-targeted PET to specifically image TRA cancer stem cells (CSCs) and assessed response to the selective ablation of PCa CSCs using TRA-targeted RPT.

Human embryonal carcinoma tumor antigen, Gp200/GCTM-2, is podocalyxin.

We previously characterized a peanut agglutinin-binding tumor antigen, gp200, a surface membrane glycoprotein expressed on human embryonal carcinoma, a malignant stem cell of testicular tumors. Gp200 is remarkably similar to another embryonal carcinoma antigen, GCTM-2, a cell differentiation marker that is also detected in blood of testis cancer patients, yet neither molecular identity is known. We now report the identity of gp200 as podocalyxin.