Mumtaz Begum, Rukhshan Khurshid, Asmat Saleem, Saeed Ahmed Nagra.
MUC1 based breast cancer vaccines: role of post translational modifications.
J Ayub Med Coll Abottabad Jan ;20(4):130-3.

Background: Vaccine development is one of the most promising fields in cancer research. After autologous transplantation, due to low tumour burden, patients are more likely to respond immunologically to a cancer vaccine7. MUC1 with its adhesive and antiadhesive functions, immunostimulatory and immunosuppressive activities, is therefore a good candidate for breast cancer vaccine. A structure-based insight into the immunogenicity of natural MUC1 glycoforms, of its sub-domains, motifs and post translational modification like glycosylation and myriostoylation may aid the design of tumour vaccines. Methods: Primary sequences of human MUC1 were retrieved from the SWISSPROT data bank. Protein pattern search: The primary sequence of Human MUC1 was searched at PROSITE (a dictionary of protein sites and patterns) database. Results: Our study observes that post-translational modifications play an important role in presenting MUC1 as a candidate for breast cancer vaccine. Conclusion: It is found that the phosphrylation and glycosylation of important functional motifs of MUC1 may take part in the production of cytokines that may provide immunization.

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