1.GFAT1: A Potential Prognostic Biomarker in Colorectal Cancer
Habibah Faroque ; Abdullah Azmahani ; Muhammad Afiq Izzuddin Othman ; Nor Hidayah Abu Bakar ; Nadiah Wan-Arfah ; Siti Zarqah Omar ; Yasuhiro Nakamura ; Hironobu Sasano
Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences 2023;19(No.3):13-19
Introduction: There is an increasing demand for additional techniques to diagnose and treat cancer including CRC
or colorectal cancer effectively. Utilizing antibodies as biomarker could contribute to accurate diagnosis of cancer
due to its high specificity and sensitivity. One of the etiologies of CRC progression was proposed as the alterations
of hexosamine biosynthetic pathway which could subsequently influence the rate-limiting enzyme, glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate aminotransferase (GFAT1). These increased enzymatic activities resulted in an elevation of glucose
uptake that provides nutrients facilitating the progression of cancer cells. Therefore, we attempted to determine the
potential of GFAT1 as the biomarker for CRC by correlating its expression with clinicopathological features of the patients. Methods: A total of 132 10% formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue were retrieved. Immunohistochemistry
(IHC) was performed on the tissue sections and digital images were subsequently acquired. All the images were automatedly analyzed using IHC Profiler. GFAT1 immunoreactivity in colorectal tissues was calculated using an adapted
H-score formula. Clinicopathological features of the patients were statistically correlated with the status of GFAT1.
Results: Colorectal adenocarcinoma tissues had the significantly highest GFAT1 H-scores with the mean of 103.18
compared to adenoma and non-tumor tissues. There have been no significant associations between clinicopathological characteristics of the patients and the status of GFAT1 except for tumor size. Conclusion: Immunoreactivity of
GFAT1 was significantly different between non-tumorous tissues and adenocarcinoma as well as between adenoma
and adenocarcinoma tissues. GFAT1 could serve as one of the prognostic biomarkers or useful targets.