Biotech Values

[p3analyze]

Good question- i vaguely remember there is some publication that says MUC1 in addition to be over-expressed in these major tumor types but also differ in terms of location on the epithelial cells in addition to differing in terms of sugar and peptide moities which are highly immunogenic. Note ONTY/Merck would not be the only one jumping on the Mucin bandwagon, there is also Transgene/Novartis. Perhaps the BLP-25 vaccine elicited immune response is specific enough to minimize collateral damage.

Edits: Copied from an online pub:

In addition to depolarized expression, tumor-derivedMUC1is
aberrantly glycosylated: Although more available glycosylation sites are linked to sugars, the carbohydrate chains tend to be shorter and contain moieties not present on normal
MUC1

Burchell JM, Mungul A, Taylor-Papadimitriou J. 2001. O-linked glycosylation in the mammary gland: changes that occur during malignancy. J. Mammary Gland Biol. Neoplasia 6:355–64