Lysosome-associated membrane glycoproteins (lamp) are integral membrane proteins, specific to lysosomes, and whose exact biological function is not yet clear. Structurally, the lamp proteins consist of two internally homologous lysosome-luminal domains separated by a proline-rich hinge region; at the C-terminal extremity there is a transmembrane region (TM) followed by a very short cytoplasmic tail (C). In each of the duplicated domains, there are two conserved disulfide bonds.
The lysosome-associated membrane proteins (LAMPs) display differential expression particularly in cancer. There are few data on their expression and especially on their molecular profile. The aim of a study was to investigate the expression of LAMP-1 and LAMP-2 genes and proteins in HGG. Newly diagnosed patients with HGG and healthy controls were examined by immunohistochemistry and qPCR for both protein and mRNA levels of LAMP-1 and LAMP-2. The transcriptional activity of LAMP-1 in HGG was significantly higher compared to normal brain and to LAMP-2. The two glycoproteins were detected in the cytosol of tumor cells with varying intensity, LAMP-1 showing again enhanced expression. In conclusion, novel data on LAMP-1 overexpression in HGG are presented suggesting involvement of this gene and protein in cell adhesion and tumor progression. These findings might help the elucidation of the complex biological role of the multifunctional LAMPs proteins and to predict novel therapeutic targets in lysosomes 1).