Figure 4.

Methods for editing the cancer glycocalyx. (A–C) Representation of the various methods used to edit the cancer glycocalyx including small molecule analogues such as 4F-GalNAc, which incorporate into and truncate glycan chains (A); addition of the activated sugar donors to cells to metabolically reprogram glycan synthesis by manipulating the amount of substrate for glycosyltransferases (B), and synthetic glycopolymers that attach to the cell membrane and can change the height of the glycocalyx (C), which affects integrin binding and clustering. The asterisk denotes the acetylation site. (D) Genetic knockdown of MGAT1, COSMC, or UGCG can precisely truncate N-glycan, O-glycan, and ganglioside biosynthesis. Panel C was adapted from Woods et al. (2017).