Affiliations: Department of General Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Guohao Wu, Department of General Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China. Tel.: +86 021 64041990; Fax: +86 021 64041990; E-mail:profwugh@163.com
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers
worldwide, and the prognosis is still very poor due to the lack of specific
and sensitive biomarkers. Aerobic glycolysis is one of the critical
hallmarks of gastric cancer cells, and several glycolytic enzymes are highly
expressed in gastric cancer patients. However, the expression and clinical
significances of phosphofructokinase-2/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase3 (PFKFB3,
one of the glycolytic enzymes) in a large sample of gastric cancer patients
remain unclear. METHODS: The expression of PFKFB3 was detected in 134 gastric
cancer patients by qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, and western blot analyses.
The correlation between PFKFB3 expression and clinicopathological factors
was analyzed by χ 2 test. In addition, we also analyzed whether
the knockdown of PFKFB3 by siRNAs could inhibit the ability of gastric
cancer cells (MGC-803 and AGS) to proliferate and migrate by MTT analysis
and transwell analyses. RESULTS: PFKFB3 was highly expressed in 81.3% (109/134) of
gastric cancer patients. The overexpression of PFKFB3 was associated with
lymph node metastasis (P = 0.045) and TNM stage (P = 0.033). Knockdown of
PFKFB3 by siRNAs significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration
abilities of gastric cancer cells. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that PFKFB3 might be a potential
biomarker for gastric cancer and anti-neoplastic targeting gene.
