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Researchers have discovered how sugar modification in cells enhances the spread of skin cancer.
The study reveals that FUT8, an enzyme that transfers the sugar fucose onto proteins, is the major cause of melanoma metastasis.
Scientists thought that the process in which carbohydrates attach to cell called glycosylation plays an important role in melanoma progression.
Researchers examined more than 30 samples of cancer tissue in patients, focusing on a particular type of glycosylation fucosylation, or the addition of sugars to a molecule by FUT8 and other enzymes.
Using laboratory mice, the researchers were able to reveal the role of FUT8 in metastasis, they subsequently focused on the factors behind the spread of melanoma.
Addiction of fucose to a particular molecule, L1CAM, by FUT8 spurred melanoma metastasis. When the
enzyme was removed, the onset of the cancer were hindered from spreading.