Biological and Clinicopathological Implications of Beta-3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase 8 in Triple-negative Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background/aim: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains difficult to treat and new molecular targets are needed. Here, we investigated the impact of glycosyltransferase genes on TNBC patient survival.

Patients and methods: mRNA expression levels of 101 glycosyltransferase genes in TNBC patients were compared for correlation with patient survival using The Cancer Genome Atlas data. An antibody to β-3-N-acetylgluco-saminyltransferase 8 (B3GNT8) was applied to investigate B3GNT8 protein distribution and expression levels in 23 TNBC surgical specimens.

Results: B3GNT8 mRNA levels inversely correlated with relapse-free survival (p<0.01) and overall survival (p<0.05) in TNBC patients. Anti-B3GNT8 antibody binding was observed as dots in the cytoplasm of cancer cells. These dots were supposed to correspond to B3GNT8 protein in tumour cells, but their number was smaller in relapsed patients than in non-relapsed patients.

Conclusion: B3GNT8 mRNA expression levels in TNBC tumour tissues are potentially useful in distinguishing patients with favourable and poor clinical outcomes.

Keywords: prognostic factor; triple-negative breast cancer; β-3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase 8.