Functional Regulation of ErbB Receptors by N-Glycans

The ErbB receptors are involved in the formation of various tumors and are thus targets of cancer therapy. It is known that their functions are regulated by N-glycans. The functional regulation of the ErbB receptors by N-glycans can be categorized into two patterns: protein conformational regulation and regulation through interaction with extracellular molecules. The former is often dependent on the sugar-chain core, and the latter is often affected by the sugar-chain terminal structure(s). For example, the specific N-glycan core in domain III of EGFR or ErbB3 regulates dimerization of the receptors, probably by affecting ligand-induced conformational changes of them. In contrast, the interaction of N-glycans of EGFR with sugar-chain recognition molecules regulates the ligand binding, autophosphorylation, or endocytosis of the receptors. In this chapter, the functional regulation of ErbB receptors by N-glycans is summarized and discussed. M. Takahashi (*) Department of Biochemistry, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan e-mail: takam@sapmed.ac.jp # Springer Japan 2015 N. Taniguchi et al. (eds.), Glycoscience: Biology and Medicine, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-54841-6_55 983