Gangliosides generalities and role in cancer therapies

Abstract

Gangliosides are located in the plasma membrane; this confers them the ability to interact with other molecules in order to participate in important cellular processes. Some gangliosides presence or absence in the cell surface is associated with either normal condition or pathologies. Particularly in cancer, gangliosides play a critical role in pathological events like cellular malignancy, tumor formation, and metastasis, defining gangliosides as good candidates to be used as cellular markers. When specific gangliosides are exhibited, immunotherapy could be applied in order to inhibit tumorigenesis or induce an immunogenic response. Novel cancer treatments such as NGcGM3/VSSP vaccines, valproic acid, BMS-345541 inhibitor of GD2 and immunotherapies using 1E10 and 14F7 monoclonal antibodies are described. On this review, there will be studied the gangliosides that allowed developing biological techniques that can give immunogenicity to cancer cells