OncoTargets and Therapy (Jul 2017)

Polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase-6 expression in gastric cancer

  • Guo Y,
  • Shi JJ,
  • Zhang J,
  • Li HX,
  • Liu B,
  • Guo H

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 10
pp. 3337 – 3344

Abstract

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Yan Guo,1–3 Jingjing Shi,1–3 Jun Zhang,4 Haixin Li,1–3 Ben Liu,2,3,5 Hua Guo2,3,6 1Department of Cancer Biobank, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, 2Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin, 3Tianjin’s Clinical Research Center for Cancer, 4Department of Thoracic Surgery, The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, 5Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 6Department of Tumor Cell Biology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China Abstract: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths, with limited improvement in its clinical outcome worldwide. Aberrant mucin-type O-glycosylation is a critical event widespread in the development of GC. Polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (GALNTs) regulate the initial step and determine the sites of mucin-type O-glycoprotein biosynthesis. GALNT6 has considerable potential as a biomarker in various cancers. The roles of GALNT6 in GC were analyzed, and the results showed that GALNT6 expression markedly increased in GC tissues compared with those in adjacent gastric tissues. High intratumoral GALNT6 density was associated with the clinicopathological parameters of TNM stage and distant metastasis. GALNT6 was identified as an independent prognosticator for the poor prognosis of GC patients. Moreover, the high expression level of GALNT6 was significantly associated with the low expression levels of E-cadherin and β-catenin and the high expression levels of MMP9. These findings indicated that GALNT6 could provide new insights into the characterization of GC as well as contribute to the development of an efficient prognostic indicator and novel therapeutic modalities for GC. Keywords: gastric cancer, O-glycosylation, GALNT6, prognosis

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