Anti-Cancer Discovery & Therapy
(Track)
MECA-79 is a novel target in gastric cancer
Kensuke Kumamoto
Department of Organ Regulatory Surgery
Fukushima Medical University
Japan
Abstract:
We investigated the expression of MECA-79,which epitope overlaps with 6-sulfo sialyl Lewis x, in gastric cancer. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that 62 of 225 (27.6%) cases were defined as positive for MECA-79 in cancer cells, while no expression was observed in non-malignant cells. MECA-79 expression was correlated with depth of invasion, venous invasion, TNM stage, and distant metastasis. In survival analyses, patients with MECA-79 expression had worse prognosis by log-rank test. Multivariate analysis of the Cox proportional hazard model showed that MECA-79 expression was an independent factor of a worse cancer-specific survival. Among 11 gastric cancer cells, MECA-79 was observed in only MKN7 cells, which also expressed GlcNAc6ST-2 transcript. A knockdown of GlcNAc6ST-2 in MKN7 cells showed a markedly reduced expression of MECA-79, suggesting that GlcNAc-sulfation of MECA-79 is mainly synthesized by GlcNAc6ST-2. Furthermore, real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that GlcNAc6ST-2 was significantly increased in cancer tissues compared with paired normal mucosa. In conclusion, the expression of MECA-79 could be a useful marker for the prognosis of gastric cancer. Our results might also provide novel drug targets for the treatment of gastric cancer.
