GLUT1/3/4 as novel biomarkers for the prognosis of human breast cancer

Abstract

Background Anomalous expression of glucose transporters (GLUTs) has been observed in a variety of tumor tissues. Although GLUT factors have been shown to have prognostic value for some cancer types, detailed bioinformatics investigation of the factors contributing to the prognostic prediction for patients with breast cancer (BC) has not yet been performed. Methods In this study, we examined the transcription levels of GLUT1 , GLUT3 , and GLUT4 and their associations with prognostic clinical data in patients with BC from the ONCOMINE database, using gene expression profiling interactive analysis (GEPIA), Kaplan-Meier (KM) plotter, and cBioPortal online tools. Results The transcription level of GLUT1 was significantly higher in the BC samples than in the normal tissues, whereas the levels of GLUT3 and GLUT4 were lower in the BC samples. The expression levels of GLUT1 and GLUT3 were associated with the cancer clinical stage. Consistently, survival analysis demonstrated that a high expression level of GLUT1 was associated with low relapse-free survival (RFS) in patients with BC, whereas high GLUT3 and GLUT4 levels predicted a longer RFS in these patients. Conclusions Overall, these results suggest GLUT1 as an effective target of precision therapy, while GLUT3/4 are novel biomarkers for the prognosis of patients with BC.

Glucose Transporter 4 and Interleukin 8 expression in hormone receptor negative/HER2 overexpressing breast carcinoma subtype: Correlation with biological behavior of the tumor cells and prognostic parameters

“…The findings of the present study are in complete agreement with other studies which proved that increased glucose uptake in breast cancer cells was significantly linked to high GLUT4 expression which was associated with poor prognostic parameters and poor survival outcome ( DeBerardinis et al, 2008;Garrido et al, 2015;Zeng et al, 2020). Moreover, Garrido et al (2015) proved that loss of GLUT4 impairs the viability of breast cancer cells via metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells.…”

“…Moreover, Garrido et al (2015) proved that loss of GLUT4 impairs the viability of breast cancer cells via metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells. On the other hand, Zeng et al (2020) showed that downregulation of GLUT4 in breast cancer cells was associated with poor overall survival.…”

Design and Characterization of Maltoheptaose-b-Polystyrene Nanoparticles, as a Potential New Nanocarrier for Oral Delivery of Tamoxifen

“…Binding of nanoparticles could be mediated by interaction of maltoheptaose corona with cell receptors promoting MH-b-PS@TMC internalization by cells, which could be endocytosis-dependent. It is presumable that the overexpression of the glucose transporter family [50] and in particular of glucose transporter 1, GLUT 1, by the MCF-7 cell line could provide a preferential entry route for maltoheptaose-coated nanoparticles, as previously observed also for glucose-modified PAMAM-based dendrimers loaded with doxorubicin [51]. This could result in selective toxicity of MH-b-PS@TMC against highly proliferating cells, with respect to non-cancerous tissues, further improving their therapeutic index with respect to free TMC.…”

The emerging role of targeting cancer metabolism for cancer therapy

“…Hence, elevated transcription of GLUT-3/4 can suggest as a potential prognostic marker (better prognosis) for breast cancer patients. 24 In addition, metaanalysis illustrates the association between GLUT-1 overexpression and poor prognosis in breast cancer, notably these results are more reliable for Asian patients who were mostly included in the studies. 25 As such, GLUT-1 expression is associated with poor prognosis as well as being metabolic biomarker for the Lauren classification in locally advanced gastric cancer.…”