The Globo H Story

The surfaces of cancer cells frequently express specific types of carbohydrate antigens, like Globo H. Healthy cells do not express or, if at all, express these antigens to a lesser extent. Therefore, such antigens may be used as potential targets for stimulating an active immune response against tumor cells.

Globo H was first isolated as a glycolipid with a ceramide backbone from the human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 by Hakomori and colleagues in 1983. It is highly expressed in various types of cancer, such as breast, prostate, and lung. Therefore, it is a potential target for the development of a novel immunotherapeutic treatment against various cancers.

Globo H is a complex hexasaccharide. The lack of an efficient synthesis method hindered further clinical development until the development of the One-Pot Synthesis (OPopS™) platform. The platform was developed by Professor Chi-Huey Wong, Distinguished Research Fellow and President of Academia Sinica, when he was at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). OBI has rights to the OPopS™ platform, which enables the commercialization of Adagloxad simolenin.