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Gangliosides

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer

  • 43 Accesses

Synonyms

Glycosphingolipids (sialic acid containing)

Definition

A family of complex amphiphatic molecules, consisting of a carbohydrate and a lipid portion. The carbohydrate portion is comprised of one or more sialic acids linked to an oligosaccharide. The complex carbohydrate in turn is linked to ceramide, a lipid that consists of sphingosine and a fatty acyl residue.

Characteristics

Gangliosides, in addition to being ubiquitous components of normal cell membranes, are highly associated with tumors. A diverse group of molecules, marked structural differences characterize many gangliosides of tumor origin in comparison with gangliosides of normal tissues. Ganglioside biological activities can be highly dependent upon ganglioside molecular structure.

Structure

The ganglioside molecule consists of an oligosaccharide core to which is attached one or more sialic acids and a hydrophobic lipid (ceramide) consisting of sphingosine (Sph, a long-chain base) and a fatty acid (FA) (Fig. 1) and...

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References

  • Hakomori Si SI (2002) Inaugural article: the glycosynapse. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99:225–232

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  • Kaucic K, Liu Y, Ladisch S (2006) Modulation of growth factor signaling by gangliosides: positive or negative? Methods Enzymol 417:168–185

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See Also

  • (2012) Antigen-presenting cells. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, pp 209–210. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_321

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  • (2012) EGFR. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1211. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1828

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  • (2012) FGFR3. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1394. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2166

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  • (2012) IL-12. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1807. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2959

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  • (2012) Knock-out mouse. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1957. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3239

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  • (2012) Microenvironment. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 2296. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3720

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  • (2012) Monoclonal antibody therapy. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, pp 2367–2368. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3823

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  • (2012) Sphingosine. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3485. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5442

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  • (2012) VEGF. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3906. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_6174

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Cancer and Immunology Research, Children’s Research Institute, Children’s National Medical Center and The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA

    Stephan Ladisch

Authors
  1. Stephan Ladisch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephan Ladisch .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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Ladisch, S. (2015). Gangliosides. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_2322-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_2322-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

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