Ganglioside GD3 May Suppress the Functional Activities of Benign Skin T Cells in Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma

The biological role and immunotherapy of gangliosides and GD3 synthase in cancers

Gangliosides are a large subfamily of glycosphingolipids that broadly exist in the nervous system and interact with signaling molecules in the lipid rafts. GD3 and GD2 are two types of disialogangliosides (GDs) that include two sialic acid residues. The expression of GD3 and GD2 in various cancers is mostly upregulated and is involved in tumor proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and immune responses. GD3 synthase (GD3S, ST8SiaI), a subclass of sialyltransferases, regulates the biosynthesis of GD3 and GD2. GD3S is also upregulated in most tumors and plays an important role in the development and progression of tumors. Many clinical trials targeting GD2 are ongoing and various immunotherapy studies targeting gangliosides and GD3S are gradually attracting much interest and attention. This review summarizes the function, molecular mechanisms, and ongoing clinical applications of GD3, GD2, and GD3S in abundant types of tumors, which aims to provide novel targets for future cancer therapy.

Identifying an Immune-Related Gene ST8SIA1 as a Novel Target in Patients With Clear-Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is one of the most common urological cancers. The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in tumor development. The present study was conducted to identify novel immune-related biomarkers. The differentially expressed genes were identified using the ESTIMATE algorithm base on GEO and TCGA databases. The Kaplan–Meier survival curve and univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. The association between ST8SIA1 and the immune system was explored. The gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and online databases were used for functional annotation. ST8SIA1 was identified as a potential prognostic gene. Elevated ST8SIA1 was observed in the tumor tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues and associated with higher T stage and advanced TNM stage (all p < 0.05). The mRNA and protein levels of ST8SIA1 in cancer tissues and cells are also upregulated. The Kaplan–Meier survival curve and univariate and multivariate analyses showed that higher expression of ST8SIA1 was associated with worse OS (all p < 0.05). ST8SIA1 expression levels were negatively correlated with tumor purity and positively associated with infiltrated immune cells and expression of immune checkpoint genes. Function analysis also revealed that ST8SIA1 was significantly associated with immune-related pathways. In conclusion, ST8SIA1 was identified as an immune-related gene and a potential target in ccRCC patients. Further relevant studies are required to validate our findings.

Sphingolipids and Lymphomas: A Double-Edged Sword

Lymphomas are a highly heterogeneous group of hematological neoplasms. Given their ethiopathogenic complexity, their classification and management can become difficult tasks; therefore, new approaches are continuously being sought. Metabolic reprogramming at the lipid level is a hot topic in cancer research, and sphingolipidomics has gained particular focus in this area due to the bioactive nature of molecules such as sphingoid bases, sphingosine-1-phosphate, ceramides, sphingomyelin, cerebrosides, globosides, and gangliosides. Sphingolipid metabolism has become especially exciting because they are involved in virtually every cellular process through an extremely intricate metabolic web; in fact, no two sphingolipids share the same fate. Unsurprisingly, a disruption at this level is a recurrent mechanism in lymphomagenesis, dissemination, and chemoresistance, which means potential biomarkers and therapeutical targets might be hiding within these pathways. Many comprehensive reviews describing their role in cancer exist, but because most research has been conducted in solid malignancies, evidence in lymphomagenesis is somewhat limited. In this review, we summarize key aspects of sphingolipid biochemistry and discuss their known impact in cancer biology, with a particular focus on lymphomas and possible therapeutical strategies against them.

Malignant and Benign T Cells Constituting Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a heterogeneous group of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including various clinical manifestations, such as mycosis fungoides (MF) and Sézary syndrome (SS). CTCL mostly develops from CD4 T cells with the skin-tropic memory phenotype. Malignant T cells in MF lesions show the phenotype of skin resident memory T cells (T_RM), which reside in the peripheral tissues for long periods and do not recirculate. On the other hand, malignant T cells in SS represent the phenotype of central memory T cells (T_CM), which are characterized by recirculation to and from the blood and lymphoid tissues. The kinetics and the functional characteristics of malignant cells in CTCL are still unclear due, in part, to the fact that both the malignant cells and the T cells exerting anti-tumor activity possess the same characteristics as T cells. Capturing the features of both the malignant and the benign T cells is necessary for understanding the pathogenesis of CTCL and would lead to new therapeutic strategies specifically targeting the skin malignant T cells or benign T cells.