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Cancer

Sugar-coated cell signalling

Nature volume 511, pages 298–299 (2014)Cite this article

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Cell membranes are covered with sugar-conjugated proteins. New findings suggest that the physical properties of this coating, which is more pronounced in cancer cells, regulate cell survival during tumour spread. See Article p.319

The cell membrane serves as a signalling interface that allows cells to exchange information with their environment. It is constructed from lipids and contains both transmembrane and lipid-tethered proteins, which can be further modified through the covalent addition of sugars to build glycoproteins. Cancer cells frequently have higher levels of glycoproteins, such as mucin-1 (refs 1,2,3), than do healthy cells, and individual glycoproteins can transduce environmental signals that directly promote malignancy. However, glycoproteins also collectively organize into a glycocalyx. In this issue, Paszek et al.4 (page 319) show how the physical properties of this coating regulate the clustering of cell-surface receptors and thereby affect intracellular signalling in ways that can contribute to cancer metastasis.

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Figure 1: Clustering for survival.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Andrew J. Ewald is in the Departments of Cell Biology and Oncology, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.,

    Andrew J. Ewald

  2. Mikala Egeblad is in the Cancer Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA.,

    Mikala Egeblad

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  1. Andrew J. Ewald
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  2. Mikala Egeblad
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Correspondence to Mikala Egeblad.

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Ewald, A., Egeblad, M. Sugar-coated cell signalling. Nature 511, 298–299 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13506

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