Glycosylation of ceramide to treat cancer has been documente

Glycosylation of ceramide to treat AM-111 cancer has been documented in cell and in animal models. Tumors require new blood vessel formation from pre-existing ones and vascular endothelial growth factor plays a critical role in PHA-739358 inducing angiogenesis in a variety of tumors. Therefore, we rationalized that targeting endothelial cells that line the tumor blood vessels, which are enriched with one isoform of LCS can have several theoretical advantages such as targeting drug delivery in several types of cancer. The aim of this study was to determine whether inhibiting glycosphingolipid synthesis would also inhibit cell proliferation/ reduce tumor volume in vitro and in vivo. This study achieved the aim that inhibiting glycosphingolipid synthesis would also inhibit cell proliferation/reduce tumor volume in vitro and in vivo. The placebo group of mice having the tumor implant received daily, an equal volume of 100 uL of vehicle. After this procedure, animals were monitored daily. End point of this set of experiments was tumor growth assessment in the kidney. Tumor growth monitoring in animals implanted orthotopically in the kidney was performed by manual palpation twice a week. After 4 weeks,, animals were euthanized with CO2 and autopsied. Tumor growth measurement was performed by direct tumor weight assessment at the end of the experiment. Next, using a commercially available monoclonal antibody against LacCer, we determined whether LacCer was a major lipid accumulating in renal cancer. Our immunohistochemical studies revealed the accumulation of large quantities of lactosylceramide within cytoplasmic vesicles exclusively in cancer cells. Previously, we have shown that in human tumor kidney proximal tubular cells, the activity of LCS is increased, and this is accompanied with an increase in the level of LacCer as compared to normal human kidney. Increased level of LacCer has also been reported in human renal cancer. These findings suggest that in the mouse model of renal cancer, the increase in lactosylceramide mass is best correlated with the increase in the tumor volume and progression of disease. Thus, targeting glycolipid synthesis, in particular LCS and LacCer may be a bonafide therapeutic approach to mitigate renal cancer. To understand the molecular pathways contr