The use of malaria glycosaminoglycan to block cancers—lessons from the human placenta

The placenta is a specialized organ that is required for the establishment of human pregnancy. During placentation, trophoblast cell proliferation, migration and invasion occur in a highly regulated manner (1). Dysregulated trophoblast cell proliferation and invasion lead to pregnancies with adverse outcomes (2-4). By comparison, malignant tumours arise when cell proliferation, migration and invasion occur in an uncontrolled manner (5,6). As such, trophoblast and cancer cell invasion may share similar mechanisms, and a recent study by Salanti et al. (7) has compared the role of a cell surface protein in human trophoblast and cancer cells.