CD301 and LSECtin glycan-binding receptors of innate immune cells - serve as prognostic markers and potential predictors of immune response in breast cancer subtypes

Sep 21, 2026

Glycosylation changes drive cancer biology, and this study evaluates glycan-binding receptors on innate immune cells as prognostic tools in invasive breast cancer. Recombinant receptors CD301, Langerin, SRCL, LSECtin, and DC-SIGNR were tested on tissue microarrays from 1,859 cases using computer-assisted quantification. Kaplan-Meier analyses identify LSECtin and CD301 as subtype-specific prognostic markers, linking LSECtin positivity with worse disease-free survival and CD301 positivity with poorer outcomes in triple negative disease.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Glycosylation and biomarkers in breast cancer

Need for additional prognostic tools

Role of glycan-binding receptors in cancer and immune recognition

CD301 and LSECtin glycan-binding receptors of innate immune cells serve as prognostic markers and potential predictors of immune response in breast cancer subtypes Anne-Sophie Wegscheider1 ,†, Irina Wojahn1 ,†, Pablo Gottheil2 , Michael Spohn3 ,4 ,5 , Joseph Alfons Käs2 , Olga Rosin1 , Bernhard Ulm6 , Peter Nollau3 ,4 , Christoph Wagener7 , Axel Niendorf1 , Gerrit Wolters-Eisfeld8 , * 1 MVZ [Prof. Dr. med. A. Niendorf](Prof. Dr. med. A. Niendorf) Pathologie Hamburg-West GmbH, Institut für Histologie, Zytologie und Molekulare Diagnostik, Lornsenstr. 4, 22767 Hamburg, Germany, 2 Peter Debye Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Leipzig University, Linnéstr. 5, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, 3 Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany, 4 Research Institute Children’s Cancer Center, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany, 5 Bioinformatics Core, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany, 6 Unabhängige Statistische Beratung Bernhard Ulm, Kochelseestr. 11, 81371 München, Germany, 7 Medical Faculty, Universität Hamburg, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany, 8 Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany *Corresponding author: Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Center, Campus Forschung N27, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. Email: [ge.wolters@uke.de](ge.wolters@uke.de) †Anne-Sophie Wegscheider and Irina Wojahn contributed equally to this work. Glycosylation is a prominent posttranslational modiﬁcation, and alterations in glycosylation are a hallmark of cancer. Glycan-binding receptors, primarily expressed on immune cells, play a central role in glycan recognition and immune response. Here, we used the recombinant C-type glycan-binding receptors CD301, Langerin, SRCL, LSECtin, and DC-SIGNR to recognize their ligands on tissue microarrays (TMA) of a large cohort (n = 1859) of invasive breast cancer of different histopathological types to systematically determine the relevance of altered glycosylation in breast cancer. Staining frequencies of cancer cells were quantiﬁed in an unbiased manner by a computer-based algorithm. CD301 showed the highest overall staining frequency (40%), followed by LSECtin (16%), Langerin (4%) and DC-SIGNR (0.5%) . By Kaplan-Meier analyses, we identiﬁed LSECtin and CD301 as prognostic markers in different breast cancer subtypes. Positivity for LSECtin was associated with inferior disease-free survival in all cases, particularly in estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer of higher histological grade. In triple negative breast cancer, positivity for CD301 correlated with a worse prognosis. Based on public RNA single-cell sequencing data of human breast cancer inﬁltrating immune cells, we found CLEC10A (CD301) and CLEC4G (LSECtin) exclusively expressed in distinct subpopulations, particularly in dendritic cells and macrophages, indicating that speciﬁc changes in glycosylation may play a signiﬁcant role in breast cancer immune response and progression. Key words: breast cancer; C-type lectins; glycan-binding receptors; immune cells; protein domain histochemistry. Introduction Breast cancer emerged as the most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide in 2020, registering an alarming 2.26 million new cases and causing nearly 685,000 breast cancer-related fatalities, according to data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization (IARC/WHO 2023) . Traditional clinical and pathological indicators, such as tumor size, grade, and lymph node involvement, along with the evaluation of specific biomarkers like estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), have historically played crucial roles in the staging and prognosis of

FAQs

Which glycan-binding receptors were evaluated in invasive breast cancer tissue microarrays?

The study used recombinant C-type glycan-binding receptors CD301, Langerin, SRCL, LSECtin, and DC-SIGNR to detect ligands on tissue microarrays.

How were staining levels in the tissue microarrays quantified?

Staining frequencies in cancer cells were quantified in an unbiased manner using a computer-based algorithm.

What prognostic associations were found for LSECtin and CD301?

Kaplan-Meier analyses identified LSECtin and CD301 as prognostic markers in different breast cancer subtypes. LSECtin positivity associated with inferior disease-free survival, and CD301 positivity correlated with worse prognosis in triple negative breast cancer.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Lucas Martin