Abstract
This study was aimed at obtaining insight into the diversity of sialic acids in cancer- and non-cancer-related CA125 antigen, tumour marker of serous ovarian cancer. Starting from available data suggesting the possible relevance of sialic acids for discriminating CA125 antigens of different origin, we have employed a new experimental approach based on the use of human sialic acid-binding Ig-like lectins, Siglecs, as tools for the investigation of sialylation.Siglec−2, belonging to the group of evolutionarily conserved Siglecs, and Siglec−3, −6, −7, −9 and −10, which are CD33-like Siglecs, were probed in solid-phase binding assays with cancer-related CA125 antigens from pleural fluid of patients with ovarian carcinoma (pfCA125), the OVCAR-3 ovarian carcinoma cell line (clCA125) and a non-cancer-related CA125 antigen, i.e. pregnancy-associated pCA125 antigen.All Siglecs used showed detectable binding to pCA125 antigen. Siglec−3, Siglec−7 and Siglec−2 exhibited moderately stronger binding to pCA125 antigen than the others. In contrast to this, Siglec−2 and Siglec−3 preferentially recognized pfCA125 with greater total binding than for pCA125, whereas Siglec−9 and Siglec−10 were highly selective for clCA125.Siglecs promise to be powerful tools for discriminating CA125 of different origin and could propagate further research on other molecular markers of biomedical and diagnostic importance.