Cancer glycobiology is an inspiriting and perspective research field, actively developing during last years. Being located mainly on the cell surface and in extracellular matrix, glycosylated molecules (especially proteoglycans) play an important role in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, growth factors signaling and normal cell microenvironment. Complex changes in proteoglycan structure and composition occur during malignant transformation, although exact molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Molecular machinery for proteoglycan biosynthesis and degradation seems to be crucial for maintenance of a physiologically appropriate proteoglycan structure/composition in normal cell and tissues; and its disturbance in cancer cells will drastically affect all proteoglycans synthesized by the cell, contributing to the evolution of tumour microenvironment.
In this Research Topic, we aim to bring together the latest data on the involvement of proteoglycan biosynthetic and degradating enzymes in carcinogenesis and reveal the complexity of the molecular mechanism, where proteoglycan biosynthesis-proteoglycan structure/composition-cell microenvironment axis regulates, in its turn, the expression of different proteoglycan core proteins and glycosaminoglycans synthesizing enzymes.
With our joint efforts, the Research Topic will be timely and important contribution to the understanding of the functional role of proteoglycans in carcinogenesis and normal cell physiology.
Cancer glycobiology is an inspiriting and perspective research field, actively developing during last years. Being located mainly on the cell surface and in extracellular matrix, glycosylated molecules (especially proteoglycans) play an important role in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, growth factors signaling and normal cell microenvironment. Complex changes in proteoglycan structure and composition occur during malignant transformation, although exact molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Molecular machinery for proteoglycan biosynthesis and degradation seems to be crucial for maintenance of a physiologically appropriate proteoglycan structure/composition in normal cell and tissues; and its disturbance in cancer cells will drastically affect all proteoglycans synthesized by the cell, contributing to the evolution of tumour microenvironment.
In this Research Topic, we aim to bring together the latest data on the involvement of proteoglycan biosynthetic and degradating enzymes in carcinogenesis and reveal the complexity of the molecular mechanism, where proteoglycan biosynthesis-proteoglycan structure/composition-cell microenvironment axis regulates, in its turn, the expression of different proteoglycan core proteins and glycosaminoglycans synthesizing enzymes.
With our joint efforts, the Research Topic will be timely and important contribution to the understanding of the functional role of proteoglycans in carcinogenesis and normal cell physiology.