Identification of novel relationships between glycosyltransferase genotypes and protein glycoforms in pancreatic cancer (608.6)

Specific glycans or protein glycoforms are potential biomarkers of cancer, but variability in expression between people limits their value. A factor influencing the variation between people is the germline genetic variants in specific genes encoding glycosyltransferases. Therefore, identifying the relationships between genetic variants and glycan expression in cancer patients could lead to better methods to detect cancers. To pursue this goal, we measured the levels of multiple glycans and protein glycoforms in the blood plasma of 123 pancreatic cancer patients and 104 control subjects, and we determined the germline genotypes of the same patients for five different genes involved in the biosynthesis of the glycans. We first tested if certain glycans or glycoforms are selectively high in patients with defined genotypes. We confirmed the known relationships between the cancer marker CA 19-9 and mutations in the FUT2 or FUT3 fucosyltransferase genes, and we found a new relationship between polymorphims in A...