Comprehensive Transcriptomic Analysis Identifies ST8SIA1 as a Survival-Related Sialyltransferase Gene in Breast Cancer.

Abstract

Hypersialylation caused by the overexpression of sialyltransferases (STs) is a common feature in cancer that is associated with several characteristics of tumorigenesis. Thus, identifying cancer-associated STs is critical for cancer therapy. However, ST screening has been frequently conducted in cell line models. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of STs in the clinical database and identified the STs related with the survival of breast cancer patients. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data of 496 patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas Breast Invasive Carcinoma (TCGA-BRCA). Of the eight mapped STs, ST3GAL5, and ST8SIA1 met the acceptable area under the curve (AUC) criteria for overall survival (OS). Using Kaplan-Meier methods, we determined that high expression of ST8SIA1 was associated with poor 10-year OS in all patients, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and non-TNBC patients, and poor disease-free survival (DFS) rates particularly in TNBC. ST8SIA1 also had superior AUC values in terms of OS/DFS. High ST8SIA1 levels showed a higher risk for poor OS in different groups of patients and a higher risk for poor DFS particularly in TNBC. In summary, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of STs from the clinical database and identified ST8SIA1 as a crucial survival-related ST, which might be a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer and TNBC patients.

• Authors: Jung-Yu Kan, Sin-Hua Moi, Wen-Chun Hung, Ming-Feng Hou, Fang-Ming Chen, Shen-Liang Shih, Jun-Ping Shiau, Chung-Liang Li, Chih-Po Chiang
• Journal: Genes (Genes (Basel)) Vol. 11 Issue 12 (11 28 2020) ISSN: 2073-4425 [Electronic] Switzerland
• PMID: 33260650 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Neoplasm Proteins
• Sialyltransferases
• alpha-N-acetylneuraminate alpha-2,8-sialyltransferase

Topics

• Aged
• Breast Neoplasms (enzymology, genetics, mortality)
• Databases, Nucleic Acid
• Disease-Free Survival
• Female
• Gene Expression Profiling
• Humans
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Proteins (genetics, metabolism)
• Sialyltransferases (genetics, metabolism)
• Survival Rate