The glycobiological landscape of breast cancer: insights into galectins and O-GlcNAc homeostasis-related genes

Abstract Purpose This study aimed to assess the functional associations between genes of the glycobiological landscape encoding galectins and O-GlcNAc cycle enzymes in the context of breast cancer biology and clinical applications. Methods An in silico analysis of the breast cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas was conducted comparing expression, pairwise correlations, and prognostic value for 17 genes encoding galectins, O-GlcNAc cycle enzymes, and cell stemness-related transcription factors. Results Multiple general and breast cancer subtype-specific differences in galectin/O-GlcNAc genetic landscape markers were observed and classified. Specifically, LGALS12 was found to be significantly downregulated in breast cancer tissues across all subtypes while LGALS2 and GFPT1 showed potential as prognostic markers. Remarkably, there was an overall loss of both correlation strength and correlation relationship between expression of galectin/O-GlcNAc landscape genes in the breast cancer samples versus normal tissues. Six gene pairs (GFPT1/LGALS1, GFPT1/LGALS3, GFPT1/LGALS12, GFPT1/KLF4, OGT/LGALS12, and OGT/KLF4) were found to be potential diagnostic markers for breast cancer. Conclusions These findings indicate that the glycobiological landscape of breast cancer underwent significant remodeling, which might be associated with switching galectin gene regulation within a framework of O-GlcNAc homeostasis.