Glycobiology Insights

Oral carcinogenesis process is frequently accompanied by alterations in glycosylation, regulated by sialyltransferase (ST) and fucosyltransferase (FUT) enzymes. The study aimed to assess ST3GAL1, FUT3, FUT5, and FUT6 mRNA expression by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR in 50 oral cancer and 50 adjacent normal tissues. The results indicated increased ST3GAL1 mRNA levels in malignant tissues as compared to adjacent normal tissues. A significant decrease in FUT3 and FUT5 transcripts was observed in malignant tissues as compared to adjacent normal tissues. Survival analysis of FUT3 transcript levels depicted significant lower survival with values above cutoff. The levels of ST3GAL1 and FUT6 were found to be higher in metastatic tissues as compared to the non-metastatic tissues and were also higher in advanced disease as compared to the early disease. The results indicated potential clinical utility of ST3GAL1, FUT3, FUT5, and FUT6 transcript levels in oral cancer pathogenesis.