Masaki Kuwatani, Toru Nakamura, Tsuyoshi Hayashi, Yasutoshi Kimura, Michihiro Ono, Masayo Motoya, Koji Imai, Keisuke Yamakita, Takuma Goto, Kuniyuki Takahashi, Hiroyuki Maguchi, Satoshi Hirano, and Hokkaido Pancreatic Cancer Study Group (HOPS). Gut and Liver 2020;14:269-73. https://doi.org/10.5009/gnl18573

Background: Fucose is utilized for the modification of different molecules involved in blood group determination, immunological reactions, and signal transduction pathways. We have recently reported that enhanced activity of the fucosyltransferase 3 and/or 6 promoted TGF-ß-mediated epithelial mesenchymal transition and was associated with increased metastatic potential of colorectal cancer (CRC), suggesting that fucose is required by CRC cells. With this in mind, we examined requirement of L-fucose in CRC cells and developed fucose-bound nanoparticles as vehicles for delivery of anticancer drugs specific to CRC.