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The contribution of fucosyltransferases to cancer biology

A contribuição das fucosiltransferases para a biologia do câncer

Abstract

Fucosyltransferases are enzymes that transfer L-fucose residues from a donor substrate to target molecules. These enzymes are encoded by genes known as FUTs (FUT1 to FUT-11), along with POFUT1 and 2. Changes in FUT expression have a significant role in cancer development and malignancy. This review delves into the biochemistry and biological functions of FUTs and their contributions to cancer. Broadly, FUTs play roles in cancer tumorigenesis, survival, and metastasis. Interactions between fucosylated glycans and various molecules associated with cancer, such as E-selectins and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), offer alternative pathways for cancer development. The review also highlights FUTs as potential biomarkers for cancer prognosis and diagnosis, along with their application as targets for therapy.

Keywords:
fucosyltransferase; fucosylation; cancer; biomarkers

Resumo

As fucosiltransferases são enzimas que catalisam a transferência de resíduos de L-fucose de um substrato doador para uma molécula receptora. Essas enzimas são codificadas por genes chamados FUTs (FUT1 a FUT-11) e POFUT1 e 2. Alterações na expressão de FUTs na fucosilação desempenham um papel importante no desenvolvimento do câncer e malignidade. Esta revisão explora alguns aspectos bioquímicos e funções biológicas das FUTs e suas contribuições no câncer. Em uma perspectiva ampla, as FUTs contribuem na tumorigênese, sobrevivência e metástase do câncer. Interações entre glicanos fucosilados e uma variedade de outras moléculas associadas ao câncer, como E-selectinas e receptor do fator de crescimento epidérmico (EGFR), apresentam vias alternativas para o desenvolvimento do câncer. Esta revisão também enfoca o fato de que as FUTs são potenciais biomarcadores para o prognóstico e diagnóstico do câncer, além de sua aplicação como alvos terapêuticos.

Palavras-chave:
fucosiltrasnferases; fucosilação; câncer; biomarcadores

1. Introduction

What determines the importance of FUTs expression in tumor biology? Their precise and influenced transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation pathways coordinated by multifactorial stimuli related to immunological and developmental status of the tumor cell and its microenvironment. Glycosylation, a crucial post-translational modification of protein structures (Nothaft and Szymanski, 2010NOTHAFT, H. and SZYMANSKI, C., 2010. Protein glycosylation in bacteria: sweeter than ever. Nature Reviews. Microbiology, vol. 8, no. 11, pp. 765-778. http://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2383. PMid:20948550.
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; Li et al., 2019LI, D., LIN, C., LI, N., DU, Y., YANG, C., BAI, Y., FENG, Z., SU, C., WU, R., SONG, S., YAN, P., CHEN, M., JAIN, A., HUANG, L., ZHANG, T. and LI, X., 2019. PLAGL2 and POFUT1 are regulated by an evolutionarily conserved bidirectional promoter and are collaboratively involved in colorectal cancer by maintaining stemness. EBioMedicine, vol. 45, pp. 124-138. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.06.051. PMid:31279780.
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), plays a pivotal role in various cellular processes.

Dysregulation of glycosylation in cell surface and serum glycoproteins has been linked to carcinogenesis and cancer progression (Magalhães et al., 2017MAGALHÃES, A., DUARTE, H.O. and REIS, C.A., 2017. Aberrant glycosylation in cancer: a novel molecular mechanism controlling metastasis. Cancer Cell, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 733-735. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2017.05.012. PMid:28609653.
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; Wang et al., 2019WANG, M., ZHU, J., LUBMAN, D.M. and GAO, C., 2019. Aberrant glycosylation and cancer biomarker discovery: a promising and thorny Journey. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 407-416. http://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2018-0379. PMid:30138110.
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). In 1964, Hakomori and Jeanloz made a groundbreaking discovery by identifying lipid-linked fucose in human gastric adenocarcinoma (Hakomori and Jeanloz, 1964HAKOMORI, S. and JEANLOZ, R.W., 1964. Isolation of a glycolipid containing fucose, galactose, glucose, and glucosamine from human cancerous tissue. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 239, no. 10, pp. 3606-3607. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9258(18)97769-0. PMid:14245427.
http://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9258(18)977...
). This finding marked the onset of extensive research into fucosylation's involvement in cancer. Structural alterations in fucosylated glycoconjugates are observed in various diseases, including cancer (Vasconcelos et al., 2013VASCONCELOS, J.L.A., FERREIRA, S.A., LIMA, A.L.R., RÊGO, M.J.B., BANDEIRA, A.R.G., CAVALCANTI, C.L.B., LIRA, M.M.M. and BELTRÃO, E.I.C., 2013. Comparing the Immunoexpression of FUT3 and FUT6 between prostatic adenocarcinoma and benign prostatic hyperplasia. Acta Histochemica et Cytochemica, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 105-109. http://doi.org/10.1267/ahc.13010. PMid:23836950.
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; Nascimento et al., 2015NASCIMENTO, J.C.F., FERREIRA, S.A., VASCONCELOS, J.L.A., SILVA-FILHO, J.L.Q., BARBOSA, B.T., BEZERRA, M.F., ROCHA, C.R.C. and BELTRÃO, E.I.C., 2015. Fut3 role in breast invasive ductal carcinoma: investigating its gene promoter and protein expression. Experimental and Molecular Pathology, vol. 99, no. 3, pp. 409-415. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexmp.2015.08.015. PMid:26321244.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexmp.2015.08.0...
, 2019NASCIMENTO, J.C.F., VASCONCELOS, A.O.V., SEABRA, M.A.B.L., BELTRÃO, E.I.C. and ROCHA, C.R.C., 2019. The challenge of determining the impact of FUT3 tumor-associated polymorphism rs2306969 (-6951 C> T) in invasive breast cancer cells. Molecular Biology Reports, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 3531-3536. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-019-04780-0. PMid:30929162.
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; Albuquerque et al., 2018ALBUQUERQUE, A.P.B., BALMAÑA, M., MEREITER, S., PINTO, F., REIS, C.A. and BELTRÃO, E.I.C., 2018. Hypoxia and serum deprivation induces glycan alterations in triple negative breast cancer cells. Biological Chemistry, vol. 399, no. 7, pp. 661-672. http://doi.org/10.1515/hsz-2018-0121. PMid:29894296.
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). Malignant tumors often exhibit abnormal fucosylated glycan expression with different localizations and functions (Yang et al., 2017YANG, H.F., YU, M., JIN, H.D., YAO, J.Q., LU, Z.L., YABASIN, I.B., YAN, Q. and WEN, Q.P., 2017. Fentanyl promotes breast cancer cell stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition by upregulating α1, 6-fucosylation via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Frontiers in Physiology, vol. 8, pp. 510. http://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00510. PMid:28798691.
http://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00510...
; Noda et al., 2018NODA, M., OKAYAMA, H., KOFUNATO, Y., CHIDA, S., SAITO, K., TADA, T., ASHIZAWA, M., NAKAJIMA, T., AOTO, K., KIKUCHI, T., SAKAMOTO, W., ENDO, H., FUJITA, S., SAITO, M., MOMMA, T., OHKI, S. and KONO, K., 2018. Prognostic role of FUT8 expression in relation to p53 status in stage II and III colorectal cancer. PLoS One, vol. 13, no. 7, e0200315. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200315. PMid:29975776.
http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200...
; Ferdosi et al., 2018FERDOSI, S., REHDER, D.S., MARANIAN, P., CASTLE, E.P., HO, T.H., PASS, H.I., CRAMER, D.W., ANDERSON, K.S., FU, L., COLE, D.E.C., LE, T., WU, X. and BORGES, C.R., 2018. Stage dependence, cell-origin independence, and prognostic capacity of serum glycan Fucosylation, β 1–4 Branching, β 1–6 branching, and α 2–6 sialylation in cancer. Journal of Proteome Research, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 543-558. http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.7b00672. PMid:29129073.
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).

Changes in the expression of fucosyltransferases are important sources of information for translational research in the oncology area, especially about how glycocoding influences tumorigenesis and tumor progression also allow inferring therapeutic and diagnostic perspectives in the area.

2. Material and Methods

Data mining was conducted in Google, Google Scholar, Scielo, Science Direct and PubMed platforms. Descriptors included “Fucosyltrasnferases”, “Glycosylation”, “Fucosylation”, individual combinations of “FUTs (1-13)”, “POFUT1”, “POFUT2”, Boolean descriptors “AND” and “OR”. “Cancer” descriptor was constant in all searches. Selected articles presented a relationship between one or more fucosyltransferases and their impact on biological and clinical aspects of any type of cancer. There was no restriction regarding date of publication. Articles selected presented titles containing terms related to fucosyltransferases and cancers. Those initially discussing fucosylated molecules without mentioning fucosyltransferases were excluded. Selected articles emphasized the connection between enzymes and cancer in their abstracts, excluding those focusing solely on fucosylated molecules. Further research was conducted to enhance the theoretical foundation during the narrative review development.

3. Fucosyltransferase Features and Roles in Cancer Biology

There are thirteen fucosyltransferase genes called FUTs, classified from FUT1 to FUT11, and POFUT1 (FUT12) and POFUT2 (FUT13) (Schneider et al., 2017SCHNEIDER, M., AL-SHAREFFI, E. and HALTIWANGER, R.S., 2017. Biological functions of fucose in mammal. Glycobiology, vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 601-618. http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cwx034. PMid:28430973.
http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cwx034...
). POFUT1 encodes GDP-fucose protein-O-fucosyltransferase 1, catalyzing α-L-fucose transfer to protein receptors' serine hydroxyl group. FUT1 and FUT2 perform glycan α1,2-fucosylation, FUT3-7 and FUT9-11 α1,3-fucosylation. FUT3 and FUT5 also do α1,4-fucosylation, while FUT8 handles α1,6-fucosylation. These enzymes are crucial for the final stage of cellular glycosylation. They are located in the Golgi apparatus (Seelhorst et al., 2014SEELHORST, K., PIERNITZKI, T., LUNAU, N., MEIER, C. and HAHN, U., 2014. Synthesis and analysis of potential α1,3-fucosyltransferase inhibitors. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, vol. 22, no. 22, pp. 6430-6437. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2014.09.038. PMid:25438767.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2014.09.038...
) or in the endoplasmic reticulum (Shan et al., 2019SHAN, M., YANG, D., DOU, H. and ZHANG, L., 2019. Fucosylation in cancer biology and its clinical applications. Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science, vol. 162, pp. 93-119. http://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pmbts.2019.01.002. PMid:30905466.
http://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pmbts.2019.01....
; Lira-Navarrete et al., 2011LIRA-NAVARRETE, E., VALERO-GONZÁLEZ, J., VILLANUEVA, R., MARTÍNEZ-JÚLVEZ, M., TEJERO, T., MERINO, P., PANJIKAR, S. and HURTADO-GUERRERO, R., 2011. Structural Insights into the Mechanism of Protein O-Fucosylation. PLoS One, vol. 6, no. 9, e25365. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025365. PMid:21966509.
http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025...
). The genetic and biochemical characteristics of this family of enzymes are diverse, as shown in Table 1. Since the early 2000s, it is known that fucosyltransferases transfer α-L-fucose from GDP-fucose to target molecules like N-Acetyl-glucosamine residues (GlcNAc) (Vries et al., 2001VRIES, T., KNEGTEL, R.M., HOLMES, E.H. and MACHER, B.A., 2001. Fucosyltransferases: structure/function studies. Glycobiology, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 119R-128R. http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/11.10.119R. PMid:11588153.
http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/11.10.119R...
) (Figure 1).

Table 1
Genetic and biochemistry features of the human fucosyltrasnferases.
Figure 1
Fucosyltransferases 1-10, as well as FUT3, catalyses the addition of α-L-fucose by a GDP-β-L-fucose to an oligosaccharide preform, generating an α-L-fucosylated glycan, GDP and H+. Alternatively, the O-fucosyltransferases, as well as POFUT1, catalyses the addition of the same α-L-fucose to a protein with a hydroxyl group in serine bonded to a threonine. The majority of fucosyltransferases are anchored in Golgi Apparatus, except the POFUT1 that is anchored in Endoplasmic Reticulum. Adapted from data available in UniProt (NIH, 2024aNATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH – NIH, 2024a [viewed 20 January 2024]. UniProt database [online]. Available from: https://www.uniprot.org/
https://www.uniprot.org/...
).

Fucosyltransferases and fucosylation products in the same or different tissues are often co-expressed, albeit with varying expression levels (Vries et al., 2001VRIES, T., KNEGTEL, R.M., HOLMES, E.H. and MACHER, B.A., 2001. Fucosyltransferases: structure/function studies. Glycobiology, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 119R-128R. http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/11.10.119R. PMid:11588153.
http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/11.10.119R...
; Ezeabikwa et al., 2021EZEABIKWA, B., MONDAL, N., ANTONOPOULOS, A., HASLAM, S.M., MATSUMOTO, Y., MARTIN-CARABALLO, M., LEHOUX, S., MANDALASI, M., ISHAQUE, A., HEIMBURG-MOLINARO, J., CUMMINGS, R.D. and NYAME, A.K., 2021. Major differences in glycosylation and fucosyltransferase expression in low-grade versus high-grade bladder cancer cell lines. Glycobiology, vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 1444-1463. http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cwab083. PMid:34350945.
http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cwab083...
). Their interaction with cell receptors and downstream signaling pathways is pivotal for tumorigenesis. Numerous cancers exhibit varying levels of FUT expression (Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analyses, accessed June 10th, 2023), FUTs involves complex mechanisms, including transcriptional and/or post-transcriptional regulation, polymorphisms, and epigenetic triggers, suggesting potential alternative therapeutic targets, as discussed ahead.

FUT1, targeting LAMP-1 and LAMP-2, impacts the expression of Lewis Y antigen (LeY) and H2 antigens. LeY is elevated in ER+/PR+/HER- breast cancer cells (MCF-7, T47D) and low in triple-negative MDA-MB-231 cells. Negative regulation of FUT1 relocates LAMP-1 and LAMP-2, increasing autophagy, mTOR signaling, and autolysosome formation (Tan et al., 2016TAN, K.P., HO, M.Y., CHO, H.C., YU, J., HUNG, J.T. and YU, A.L., 2016. Fucosylation of LAMP-1 and LAMP-2 by FUT1 correlates with lysosomal positioning and autophagic flux of breast cancer cells. Cell Death & Disease, vol. 7, no. 8, e2347. http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2016.243. PMid:27560716.
http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2016.243...
). These events have crucial implications in different cancers, such as ovarian cancer, where FUT1 promotes the overexpression of LeY, driving cell proliferation (Hao et al., 2017HAO, Y., ZHU, L., YAN, L., LIU, J., LIU, D., GAO, N., TAN, M., GAO, S. and LIN, B., 2017. C-Fos mediates α1, 2-fucosyltransferase 1 and Lewis y expression in response to TGF-β1 in ovarian cancer. Oncology Reports, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 3355-3366. PMid:29130097.). FUT1 overexpression positively regulates 215 genes in ovarian carcinoma cells, including the TRIM46 oncogene (Gao et al., 2016GAO, S., ZHU, L., FENG, H., HU, Z., JIN, S., SONG, Z., LIU, D., LIU, J., HAO, Y., LI, X. and LIN, B., 2016. Gene expression profile analysis in response to α1,2-fucosyl transferase (FUT1) gene transfection in epithelial ovarian carcinoma cells. Tumour Biology, vol. 37, no. 9, pp. 12251-12262. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-5080-4. PMid:27240592.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-5080-4...
). Another one, FUT2 is overexpressed in HCC, increasing levels of the tumor-associated Globo H antigen (Wu et al., 2014WU, C.S., YEN, C.J., CHOU, R.H., CHEN, J.N., HUANG, W.C., WU, C.Y. and YU, Y.L., 2014. Downregulation of microRNA-15b by hepatitis B virus X enhances hepatocellular carcinoma proliferation via fucosyltransferase 2-induced Globo H expression. International Journal of Cancer, vol. 134, no. 7, pp. 1638-1647. http://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.28501. PMid:24122375.
http://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.28501...
). Reduced levels of FUT1 inhibit tumor growth (Zhang et al., 2008ZHANG, Z., SUN, P., LIU, J., FU, L., YAN, J., LIU, Y., YU, L., WANG, X. and YAN, Q., 2008. Suppression of FUT1/FUT4 expression by siRNA inhibits tumour growth. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, vol. 1783, no. 2, pp. 287-296. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamcr.2007.10.007. PMid:18023290.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamcr.2007.10....
) and proliferation in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer cells (Kawai et al., 2013KAWAI, S., KATO, S., IMAI, H., OKADA, Y. and ISHIOKA, C., 2013. Suppression of FUT1 attenuates cell proliferation in the HER2-overexpressing cancer cell line NCI-N87. Oncology Reports, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 13-20. http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2012.2120. PMid:23128605.
http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2012.2120...
), while FUT1 silencing decreases mTORC1 activity, a key regulator of growth and autophagy (Tan et al., 2016TAN, K.P., HO, M.Y., CHO, H.C., YU, J., HUNG, J.T. and YU, A.L., 2016. Fucosylation of LAMP-1 and LAMP-2 by FUT1 correlates with lysosomal positioning and autophagic flux of breast cancer cells. Cell Death & Disease, vol. 7, no. 8, e2347. http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2016.243. PMid:27560716.
http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2016.243...
).

Many cancers may present aberrant expression of FUT3 and its upregulation leads to higher levels of Lewis antigens, associated with increased metastatic potential. But in gastric cancer, negative regulation of FUT3 reduces endothelial adhesion through interactions with sLe antigens and E-selectin (Padró et al., 2011PADRÓ, M., COBLER, L., GARRIDO, M. and DE BOLÓS, C., 2011. Down-regulation of FUT3 and FUT5 by shRNA alters Lewis antigens expression and reduces the adhesion capacities of gastric cancer cells. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, vol. 1810, no. 12, pp. 1141-1149. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2011.09.011. PMid:21978830.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2011.09....
). In invasive ductal breast cancer, FucT-III (FUT3) is absent, but FUT4, FUT5, FUT6, and FUT10-11 are present (Nascimento et al., 2015NASCIMENTO, J.C.F., FERREIRA, S.A., VASCONCELOS, J.L.A., SILVA-FILHO, J.L.Q., BARBOSA, B.T., BEZERRA, M.F., ROCHA, C.R.C. and BELTRÃO, E.I.C., 2015. Fut3 role in breast invasive ductal carcinoma: investigating its gene promoter and protein expression. Experimental and Molecular Pathology, vol. 99, no. 3, pp. 409-415. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexmp.2015.08.015. PMid:26321244.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexmp.2015.08.0...
; Carrascal et al., 2018CARRASCAL, M., SILVA, M., RAMALHO, J., PEN, C., MARTINS, C., PASCOAL, C., AMARAL, C., SERRANO, I., OLIVEIRA, M.J., SACKSTEIN, R. and VIDEIRA, P.A., 2018. Inhibition of fucosylation in human invasive ductal carcinoma reduces E-selectin ligand expression, cell proliferation and ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK activation. Molecular Oncology, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 579-593. http://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.12163. PMid:29215790.
http://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.12163...
). FUT6 influences cell migration, invasion, and proliferation, promoting growth in HCC and cell adhesion in colon carcinoma (Li et al., 2016LI, N., LIU, Y., MIAO, Y., ZHAO, L., ZHOU, H. and JIA, L., 2016. MicroRNA-106b targets FUT6 to promote cell migration, invasion, and proliferation in human breast cancer. IUBMB Life, vol. 68, no. 9, pp. 764-775. http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.1541. PMid:27519168.
http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.1541...
; Kanoh et al., 2003KANOH, A., OTA, M., NARIMATSU, H. and IRIMURA, T., 2003. Expression levels of FUT6 gene transfected into human colon carcinoma cells switch two sialyl-Lewis X-related carbohydrate antigens with distinct properties in cell adhesion. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 303, no. 3, pp. 896-901. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-291X(03)00420-0. PMid:12670495.
http://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-291X(03)004...
).

FUT5 plays a role in sLex and sLea antigen biosynthesis in gastric cancer cells (Carvalho et al., 2010CARVALHO, A.S., HARDUIN-LEPERS, A., MAGALHÃES, A., MACHADO, E., MENDES, N., COSTA, L.T., MATTHIESEN, R., ALMEIDA, R., COSTA, J. and REIS, C.A., 2010. Differential expression of α-2,3-sialyltransferases and α-1,3/4-fucosyltransferases regulates the levels of sialyl Lewis a and sialyl Lewis x in gastrointestinal carcinoma cells. The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 80-89. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2009.09.010. PMid:19781661.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocel.2009.09....
), while FUT3 expression depends on promoter hypomethylation (Serpa et al., 2006SERPA, J., MESQUITA, P., MENDES, N., OLIVEIRA, C., ALMEIDA, R., SANTOS-SILVA, F., REIS, C.A., LEPENDU, J. and DAVID, L., 2006. Expression of Lea in gastric cancer cell lines depends on FUT3 expression regulated by promoter methylation. Cancer Letters, vol. 242, no. 2, pp. 191-197. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2005.11.009. PMid:16427187.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2005.11....
). Despite their similar mechanisms, FUT3 is more significant in cancer progression which high expression is linked to poor prognosis in clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC), predicting poor overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS). It also influences various malignancy-related features (Meng et al., 2017MENG, L., XU, L., YANG, Y., ZHOU, L., CHANG, Y., SHI, T., TAN, S., AN, H., ZHU, Y. and XU, J., 2017. High expression of FUT3 is linked to poor prognosis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Oncotarget, vol. 8, no. 37, pp. 61036-61047. http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.17717. PMid:28977844.
http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.17717...
).

Cell migration, invasion, and proliferation are cancer features influenced by FUT6 (Li et al., 2016LI, N., LIU, Y., MIAO, Y., ZHAO, L., ZHOU, H. and JIA, L., 2016. MicroRNA-106b targets FUT6 to promote cell migration, invasion, and proliferation in human breast cancer. IUBMB Life, vol. 68, no. 9, pp. 764-775. http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.1541. PMid:27519168.
http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.1541...
). Aberrant FUT6 expression in HCC promotes cell growth, colony formation, Akt phosphorylation, and suppresses p21 expression (Guo et al., 2012GUO, Q., GUO, B., WANG, Y., WU, J., JIANG, W., ZHAO, S., QIAO, S. and WU, Y., 2012. Functional analysis of α1,3/4-fucosyltransferase VI in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 417, no. 1, pp. 311-317. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.11.106. PMid:22155250.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.11.10...
). In colon carcinoma, FUT6 overexpression induces cellular adhesion (Kanoh et al., 2003KANOH, A., OTA, M., NARIMATSU, H. and IRIMURA, T., 2003. Expression levels of FUT6 gene transfected into human colon carcinoma cells switch two sialyl-Lewis X-related carbohydrate antigens with distinct properties in cell adhesion. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 303, no. 3, pp. 896-901. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-291X(03)00420-0. PMid:12670495.
http://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-291X(03)004...
).

FUT7 contributes to tumor cell adhesion and metastasis, cell proliferation, EMT, and inflammation (He et al., 2022HE, F., YI, L. and LAI, C., 2022. Fut7 promotes adhesion and invasion of acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells through the integrin/Fak/Akt pathway. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2022, pp. 1864116. http://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1864116. PMid:35795270.
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; Liu et al., 2021LIU, M., ZHENG, Q., CHEN, S., LIU, J. and LI, S., 2021. FUT7 Promotes the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and immune infiltration in bladder urothelial carcinoma. Journal of Inflammation Research, vol. 14, pp. 1069-1084. http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S296597. PMid:33790621.
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; Liang et al., 2017LIANG, J., GAO, W. and CAI, L., 2017. Fucosyltransferase VII promotes proliferation via the EGFR/AKT/mTOR pathway in A549 cells. OncoTargets and Therapy, vol. 10, pp. 3971-3978. http://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S140940. PMid:28860805.
http://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S140940...
). FUT7 is decreased in lung carcinoma, but in human lung cancer cells, FUT7 regulates sLex expression, promoting cell proliferation, migration, and invasion (Liu et al., 2008LIU, S., ZHANG, Y., LIU, Y., QIN, H., WANG, X. and YAN, Q., 2008. FUT7 antisense sequence inhibits the expression of FUT7/sLeX and adhesion between embryonic and uterine cells. IUBMB Life, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 461-466. http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.62. PMid:18553500.
http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.62...
; Zhang et al., 2018ZHANG, J., JU, N., YANG, X., CHEN, L. and YU, C., 2018. The α1,3-fucosyltransferase FUT7 regulates IL-1β-induced monocyte-endothelial adhesion via fucosylation of endomucin. Life Sciences, vol. 192, pp. 231-237. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2017.11.017. PMid:29138114.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2017.11.017...
). FUT7 seems to contribute to invasive potential of cancer cells. It content is decreased in lung carcinoma compared with tumour-adjacent tissues (Zhou et. al, 2017ZHOU, W., MA, H., DENG, G., TANG, L., LU, J. and CHEN, X., 2017. Clinical significance and biological function of fucosyltransferase 2 in lung adenocarcinoma. Oncotarget, vol. 8, no. 57, pp. 97246-97259. http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896. PMid:29228607.
http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896...
) and in human lung cancer cells lines FUT7 was involved in regulation of sLex expression and promotion of cell proliferation, migration and invasion (Liu et al., 2008LIU, S., ZHANG, Y., LIU, Y., QIN, H., WANG, X. and YAN, Q., 2008. FUT7 antisense sequence inhibits the expression of FUT7/sLeX and adhesion between embryonic and uterine cells. IUBMB Life, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 461-466. http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.62. PMid:18553500.
http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.62...
; Zhang et al., 2018ZHANG, J., JU, N., YANG, X., CHEN, L. and YU, C., 2018. The α1,3-fucosyltransferase FUT7 regulates IL-1β-induced monocyte-endothelial adhesion via fucosylation of endomucin. Life Sciences, vol. 192, pp. 231-237. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2017.11.017. PMid:29138114.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2017.11.017...
).

The α1,6-fucosylation, performed by FUT8, is crucial in tumor progression, associated with invasion and metastasis of prostate cancer and melanome (Agrawal et al., 2017AGRAWAL, P., FONTANALS-CIRERA, B., SOKOLOVA, E., JACOB, S., VAIANA, C.A., ARGIBAY, D., DAVALOS, V., MCDERMOTT, M., NAYAK, S., DARVISHIAN, F., CASTILLO, M., UEBERHEIDE, B., OSMAN, I., FENYÖ, D., MAHAL, L.K. and HERNANDO, E., 2017. A systems biology approach identifies FUT8 as a driver of melanoma metastasis. Cancer Cell, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 804-819.e7. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2017.05.007. PMid:28609658.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2017.05.0...
) EMT, tumorigenesis, tumour growth, and poor prognosis (Wang et al., 2014bWANG, X., CHEN, J., LI, Q.K., PESKOE, S.B., ZHANG, B., CHOI, C., PLATZ, E.A. and ZHANG, H., 2014b. Overexpression of α (1,6) fucosyltransferase associated with aggressive prostate cancer. Glycobiology, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 935-944. http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cwu051. PMid:24906821.
http://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cwu051...
, 2015WANG, Y., FUKUDA, T., ISAJI, T., LU, J., IM, S., HANG, Q., GU, W., HOU, S., OHTSUBO, K. and GU, J., 2015. Loss of α1,6-fucosyltransferase inhibits chemical-induced hepatocellular carcinoma and tumorigenesis by down-regulating several cell signaling pathways. The FASEB Journal, vol. 29, no. 8, pp. 3217-3227. http://doi.org/10.1096/fj.15-270710. PMid:25873065.
http://doi.org/10.1096/fj.15-270710...
; Yang et al., 2017YANG, H.F., YU, M., JIN, H.D., YAO, J.Q., LU, Z.L., YABASIN, I.B., YAN, Q. and WEN, Q.P., 2017. Fentanyl promotes breast cancer cell stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition by upregulating α1, 6-fucosylation via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Frontiers in Physiology, vol. 8, pp. 510. http://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00510. PMid:28798691.
http://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00510...
; Honma et al., 2015HONMA, R., KINOSHITA, I., MIYOSHI, E., TOMARU, U., MATSUNO, Y., SHIMIZU, Y., TAKEUCHI, S., KOBAYASHI, Y., KAGA, K., TANIGUCHI, N. and DOSAKA-AKITA, H., 2015. Expression of fucosyltransferase 8 is associated with an unfavorable clinical outcome in non-small cell lung cancers. Oncology, vol. 88, no. 5, pp. 298-308. http://doi.org/10.1159/000369495. PMid:25572677.
http://doi.org/10.1159/000369495...
). MiR-198 represses tumor growth and metastasis in colorectal cancer by targeting fucosyltransferase 8 (Wang et al., 2014aWANG, M., WANG, J., KONG, X., CHEN, H., WANG, Y., QIN, M., LIN, Y., CHEN, H., XU, J., HONG, J., CHEN, Y.X., ZOU, W. and FANG, J.Y., 2014a. MiR-198 represses tumor growth and metastasis in colorectal cancer by targeting fucosyl transferase 8. Scientific Reports, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 6145. http://doi.org/10.1038/srep06145. PMid:25174450.
http://doi.org/10.1038/srep06145...
). FUT9 influences tumorigenesis, proliferation, migration, and therapy, with low expression associated with poor survival in colorectal cancer (Auslander et al., 2017AUSLANDER, N., CUNNINGHAM, C.E., TOOSI, B.M., MCEWEN, E.J., YIZHAK, K., VIZEACOUMAR, F.S., PARAMESWARAN, S., GONEN, N., FREYWALD, T., BHANUMATHY, K.K., FREYWALD, A., VIZEACOUMAR, F.J. and RUPPIN, E., 2017. An integrated computational and experimental study uncovers FUT9 as a metabolic driver of colorectal cancer. Molecular Systems Biology, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 956. http://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20177739. PMid:29196508.
http://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20177739...
; Shi et al., 2017SHI, G., DU, Y., LI, Y., AN, Y., HE, Z., LIN, Y., ZHANG, R., YAN, X., ZHAO, J., YANG, S., BRENDAN, P.N.K. and LIU, F., 2017. Cell recognition molecule L1 regulates cell surface glycosylation to modulate cell survival and migration. International Journal of Medical Sciences, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 1276-1283. http://doi.org/10.7150/ijms.20479. PMid:29104485.
http://doi.org/10.7150/ijms.20479...
). Meanwhile FUT10 overexpression maintains stem cell populations, crucial in cancer malignancy (Kumar et al., 2013KUMAR, A., TORII, T., ISHINO, Y., MURAOKA, D., YOSHIMURA, T., TOGAYACHI, A., NARIMATSU, H., IKENAKA, K. and HITOSHI, S., 2013. The Lewis X-related α1,3-Fucosyltransferase, Fut10, is required for the maintenance of stem cell populations. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 288, no. 40, pp. 28859-28868. http://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M113.469403. PMid:23986452.
http://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M113.469403...
).

Functional analysis of the CancerSEA database showed that FUT3, FUT6, FUT8, FUT12 POFUT1 and POFUT2 are associated with differentiation, apoptosis, invasion, quiescence and hypoxia (Wang et al., 2023WANG, P., LIU, X., YU, J., MENG, Z., LV, Z., SHANG, C., GENG, Q., WANG, D., XUE, D. and LI, L., 2023. Fucosyltransferases regulated by fusobacterium nucleatum and act as novel biomarkers in colon adenocarcinoma. Journal of Inflammation Research, vol. 16, pp. 747-768. http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484. PMid:36852302.
http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484...
). POFUT1 overexpression showed to be an important factor to activation of Notch signalling and this feature was associated to poor prognostic in IDC and HCC progression (Ma et al., 2016MA, L., DONG, P., LIU, L., GAO, Q., DUAN, M., ZHANG, S., CHEN, S., XUE, R. and WANG, X., 2016. Overexpression of protein O-fucosyltransferase 1 accelerates hepatocellular carcinoma progression via the Notch signaling pathway. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 473, no. 2, pp. 503-510. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2016.03.062. PMid:27003260.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2016.03.06...
; Wan et al., 2017WAN, G., TIAN, L., YU, Y., LI, F., WANG, X., LI, C., DENG, S., YU, X., CAI, X., ZUO, Z. and CAO, F., 2017. Overexpression of Pofut1 and activated Notch1 may be associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 491, no. 1, pp. 104-111. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2017.07.053. PMid:28709865.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2017.07.05...
).

FUTs are associated with the tumor microenvironment of colon adenocarcinoma. FUT1 regulated by miR-939-3p inhibits MUC2 expression. Fusobacterium nucleatum can affect the expression of FUTs by affecting their transcription factors and miRNA levels. Furthermore, Fusobacterium nucleatum promotes the progression of colon adenocarcinoma through the miR-939-3p/FUT1/MUC2 axis (Wang et al., 2023WANG, P., LIU, X., YU, J., MENG, Z., LV, Z., SHANG, C., GENG, Q., WANG, D., XUE, D. and LI, L., 2023. Fucosyltransferases regulated by fusobacterium nucleatum and act as novel biomarkers in colon adenocarcinoma. Journal of Inflammation Research, vol. 16, pp. 747-768. http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484. PMid:36852302.
http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484...
).

4. Translational Perspectives of Fucosyltransferases in Cancer

Translational medicine is the direct application of scientific discoveries to clinical practice, aiming to translate insights from basic research to enhance prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in clinical settings. In this context, there is data in the scientific literature that supports translational investigations in the area of oncology through the manipulation of fucosyltransferases (Table 2). An important therapeutic perspective in cancer may be create tools and/or protocols to regulate the inhibition of the enzymatic activity of fucosyltransferases and their genes expression. However, as a family of enzymes with redundant isoforms, it is challenging to predict whether the inhibition of a fucosyltransferase can have its activity reduced compensated by another fucosyltransferase that performs the same enzymatic activity.

Table 2
Fucosyltransferases and Expression Level and Biological and Clinical Impacts in Cancer

Martin et al. (2021)MARTIN, K.C., TRICOMI, J., CORZANA, F., GARCÍA-GARCÍA, A., CEBALLOS-LAITA, L., HICKS, T., MONACO, S., ANGULO, J., HURTADO-GERRERO, R., RICHICHI, B. and SACKSTEIN, R., 2021. Fucosyltransferase-specific inhibition via next generation of fucose mimetics. Chemical Communications, vol. 57, no. 9, pp. 1145-1148. http://doi.org/10.1039/D0CC04847J. PMid:33411866.
http://doi.org/10.1039/D0CC04847J...
proposed an L-fucose glycomimetic that markedly inhibits the creation of sLeX by FUT VI and FUT VII, but has no effect on the creation of LeX by FUT IX. Although these fucosyltransferases have the same alpha 1,3 fucosyltransferase activities, it was possible to obtain a selective suppression of sLex expression. In order to be able to apply this knowledge to other fucosyltransferases and thus regulate their activities, it is necessary to better understand how their enzymatic mechanism of action works in relation to GDP-fucose mimetic inhibitors, since it has been demonstrated that what the mentioned GDP mimetic -fucose surprisingly does not compete for the enzymatic binding site.

The overexpression of FUT1 and FUT2 contribute to cancer progression, by cellular proliferation (Labarriere et al., 1994LABARRIÈRE, N., PIAU, J.P., OTRY, C., DENIS, M., LUSTENBERGER, P., MEFLAH, K. and LE PENDU, J., 1994. H blood group antigen carried by CD44V modulates tumourigenicity of rat colon carcinoma cells. Cancer Research, vol. 54, no. 23, pp. 6275-6281. PMid:7525057.; Isozaki et al., 2014ISOZAKI, T., RUTH, J.H., AMIN, M.A., CAMPBELL, P.L., TSOU, P.S., HA, C.M., HAINES III, G.K., EDHAYAN, G. and KOCH, A.L., 2014. Fucosyltransferase 1 mediates angiogenesis, cell adhesion and rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue fibroblast proliferation. Arthritis Research & Therapy, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. R28. http://doi.org/10.1186/ar4456. PMid:24467809.
http://doi.org/10.1186/ar4456...
; Zhou et al., 2017ZHOU, W., MA, H., DENG, G., TANG, L., LU, J. and CHEN, X., 2017. Clinical significance and biological function of fucosyltransferase 2 in lung adenocarcinoma. Oncotarget, vol. 8, no. 57, pp. 97246-97259. http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896. PMid:29228607.
http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896...
), tumorigenicity (Sun et al., 1995SUN, J., THURIN, J., COOPER, H.S., WANG, P., MACKIEWICZ, M., STEPLEWSKI, Z. and BLASZCZYK-THURIN, M., 1995. Elevated expression of H type GDP-L-fucose:beta-D-galactoside alpha-2-L-fucosyltransferase is associated with human colon adenocarcinoma progression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 92, no. 12, pp. 5724-5728. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.92.12.5724. PMid:7539926.
http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.92.12.5724...
), cellular migration and invasion (Zhou et al., 2017ZHOU, W., MA, H., DENG, G., TANG, L., LU, J. and CHEN, X., 2017. Clinical significance and biological function of fucosyltransferase 2 in lung adenocarcinoma. Oncotarget, vol. 8, no. 57, pp. 97246-97259. http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896. PMid:29228607.
http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896...
), resistance to chemotherapy via overexpression of Lewis Y antigens (Gao et al., 2010GAO, S., LIU, Q., WANG, X., LIN, B. and ZHANG, S., 2010. Effects of Lewis y antigen on the gene expression of multiple drug resistance associated proteins in human ovarian cancer RMG-I-H cells. Medical Oncology, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 960-967. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-009-9317-6. PMid:19771531.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-009-9317-6...
; Che et al., 2016CHE, Y., REN, X., XU, L., DING, X., ZHANG, X. and SUN, X., 2016. Critical involvement of the α(1,2)-fucosyltransferase in multidrug resistance of human chronic myeloid leukemia. Oncology Reports, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 3025-3033. http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2016.4673. PMid:26986216.
http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2016.4673...
) and act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors (Raheja et al., 2014RAHEJA, R., LIU, Y., HUKKELHOVEN, E., YEH, N. and KOFF, A., 2014. The ability of TRIM3 to induce growth arrest depends on ring-dependent E3 ligase activity. The Biochemical Journal, vol. 458, no. 3, pp. 537-545. http://doi.org/10.1042/BJ20131288. PMid:24393003.
http://doi.org/10.1042/BJ20131288...
; Kannan et al., 2015KANNAN, K., KORDESTANI, G.K., GALAGODA, A., COARFA, C. and YEN, L., 2015. Aberrant MUC1-TRIM46-KRTCAP2 chimeric RNAs in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Cancers, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 2083-2093. http://doi.org/10.3390/cancers7040878. PMid:26492273.
http://doi.org/10.3390/cancers7040878...
). High FUT1 expression in HCC predicts poor prognosis and is associated with reduced relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) when combined with B3GALT5 (β-1,3-galactosyltransferase 5) (Kuo et al., 2017KUO, H.H., LIN, R.J., HUNG, J.T., HSIEH, C.B., HUNG, T.H., LO, F.Y., HO, M.Y., YEH, C.T., HUANG, Y.L., YU, J. and YU, A.L., 2017. High expression FUT1 and B3GALT5 is an independent predictor of postoperative recurrence and survival in hepatocellular carcinoma. Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 10750. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11136-w. PMid:28883415.
http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11136-...
). Despite FUT8 overexpression, it does not influence malignancy features, as observed in NSCLC H1299 cells (Zhou et al., 2017ZHOU, W., MA, H., DENG, G., TANG, L., LU, J. and CHEN, X., 2017. Clinical significance and biological function of fucosyltransferase 2 in lung adenocarcinoma. Oncotarget, vol. 8, no. 57, pp. 97246-97259. http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896. PMid:29228607.
http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.21896...
).

Aberrant expression of FUT3 in various types of cancer is associated with higher levels of Lewis antigens, contributing to increased metastatic potential. In gastric cancer, negative regulation of FUT3 affects adhesion to the endothelium, highlighting its multifaceted role (Padró et al., 2011PADRÓ, M., COBLER, L., GARRIDO, M. and DE BOLÓS, C., 2011. Down-regulation of FUT3 and FUT5 by shRNA alters Lewis antigens expression and reduces the adhesion capacities of gastric cancer cells. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, vol. 1810, no. 12, pp. 1141-1149. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2011.09.011. PMid:21978830.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2011.09....
). Thus, therapeutic interventions that aim to reduce the expression or catalytic activity of FUT3 may be crucial to prevent the emergence of metastases in patients who overexpress this enzyme.

In colorectal cancer cell lines undergoing TGF-β-induced EMT, FUT3 and FUT6 knockdown reduced invasion and metastatic potential, as well as fucosylation of type I TβR and downstream molecule phosphorylation, indicating their role in TGF-β-mediated EMT (Hirakawa et al., 2014HIRAKAWA, M., TAKIMOTO, R., TAMURA, F., YOSHIDA, M.M., ONO, M., MURASE, K., SATO, T., OSUGA, T., SATO, T., IYAMA, S., MIYANISHI, K., TAKADA, K., HAYASHI, T., KOBUNE, M. and KATO, J., 2014. Fucosylated TGF-β receptors transduces a signal for epithelial–mesenchymal transition in colorectal cancer cells. British Journal of Cancer, vol. 110, no. 1, pp. 156-163. http://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2013.699. PMid:24253505.
http://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2013.699...
). In pancreatic cancer cells, FUT3 knockdown interrupted TGF-β-induced EMT (Zhan et al., 2018ZHAN, L., CHEN, L. and CHEN, Z., 2018. Knockdown of FUT3 disrupts the proliferation, migration, tumorigenesis and TGF-β induced EMT in pancreatic cancer cells. Oncology Letters, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 924-930. http://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2018.8738. PMid:29963165.
http://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2018.8738...
). Conversely, FUT3 was absent in cells overexpressing Kras (v12) or SNAIL, while FUT1 and FUT3 overexpression and increased prolactin content were linked to poor prognosis in lymph node metastasis (Breiman et al., 2016BREIMAN, A., LÓPEZ ROBLES, M.D., DE CARNÉ TRÉCESSON, S., ECHASSERIEAU, K., BERNARDEAU, K., DRICKAMER, K., INBERTY, A., BARILLÉ-NION, S., ALTARE, F. and PENDU, J.L., 2016. Carcinoma-associated fucosylated antigens are markers of the epithelial state and can contribute to cell adhesion through CLEC17A. Oncotarget, vol. 7, no. 12, pp. 14064-14082. http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.7476. PMid:26908442.
http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.7476...
). High FUT3 expression is a marker of lower overall survival of breast cancer patients (Nascimento et al., 2020NASCIMENTO, J.C.F., BELTRÃO, E.I.C. and ROCHA, C.R.C., 2020. High FUT3 expression is a marker of lower overall survival of breast cancer patients. Glycoconjugate Journal, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 263-275. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10719-020-09914-2. PMid:32062822.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s10719-020-09914-...
).

Reduced levels of FUT1 have inhibitory effects on tumor growth, especially in breast cancer cells with HER2 overexpression, where proliferation is significantly affected. Silencing of FUT1 also influences the activity of mTORC1, a key regulator of growth and autophagy, highlighting its critical role in the tumor context (Zhang et al., 2008ZHANG, Z., SUN, P., LIU, J., FU, L., YAN, J., LIU, Y., YU, L., WANG, X. and YAN, Q., 2008. Suppression of FUT1/FUT4 expression by siRNA inhibits tumour growth. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, vol. 1783, no. 2, pp. 287-296. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamcr.2007.10.007. PMid:18023290.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamcr.2007.10....
; Kawai et al., 2013KAWAI, S., KATO, S., IMAI, H., OKADA, Y. and ISHIOKA, C., 2013. Suppression of FUT1 attenuates cell proliferation in the HER2-overexpressing cancer cell line NCI-N87. Oncology Reports, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 13-20. http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2012.2120. PMid:23128605.
http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2012.2120...
; Tan et al., 2016TAN, K.P., HO, M.Y., CHO, H.C., YU, J., HUNG, J.T. and YU, A.L., 2016. Fucosylation of LAMP-1 and LAMP-2 by FUT1 correlates with lysosomal positioning and autophagic flux of breast cancer cells. Cell Death & Disease, vol. 7, no. 8, e2347. http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2016.243. PMid:27560716.
http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2016.243...
). Gene editing or inhibition of the enzymatic activity of FUT1 are alternatives to be explored in the treatment of breast cancer. Furthermore, FUT1 should be investigated as a potential prognostic biomarker in breast cancer with HER2 overexpression. Increased expression of FUT1, POFUT1 and POFUT2 has been reported in colon adenocarcinoma leading to a poor prognosis, while patients with high expression of FUT2, FUT3, FUT6 had a more favorable prognosis (Wang et al., 2023WANG, P., LIU, X., YU, J., MENG, Z., LV, Z., SHANG, C., GENG, Q., WANG, D., XUE, D. and LI, L., 2023. Fucosyltransferases regulated by fusobacterium nucleatum and act as novel biomarkers in colon adenocarcinoma. Journal of Inflammation Research, vol. 16, pp. 747-768. http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484. PMid:36852302.
http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484...
). FUT11 high expression is a potential biomarker for ccRCC with a non-symptomatic disease course (Zodro et al., 2014ZODRO, E., JAROSZEWSKI, M., IDA, A., WRZESIŃSKI, T., KWIAS, Z., BLUYSSEN, H. and WESOLY, J., 2014. FUT11 as a potential biomarker of clear cell renal cell carcinoma progression based on meta-analysis of gene expression data. Tumour Biology, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 2607-2617. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1344-4. PMid:24318988.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1344-4...
).

FUT1 and POFUT2 could, independently, predict the prognosis of patients with colon adenocarcinoma (Wang et al., 2023WANG, P., LIU, X., YU, J., MENG, Z., LV, Z., SHANG, C., GENG, Q., WANG, D., XUE, D. and LI, L., 2023. Fucosyltransferases regulated by fusobacterium nucleatum and act as novel biomarkers in colon adenocarcinoma. Journal of Inflammation Research, vol. 16, pp. 747-768. http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484. PMid:36852302.
http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484...
). POFUT1 (FUT12) and POFUT2 emerge as potential biomarkers, although their role in cancer is poorly understood (Maftah and Germot, 2019MAFTAH, A. and GERMOT, A., 2019. POFUT1 and PLAGL2 gene pair linked by a bidirectional promoter: the two in one of tumour progression in colorectal cancer? EBioMedicine, vol. 46, pp. 25-26. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.07.065. PMid:31378697.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.07.0...
). POFUT1 correlates with aggressive tumor phenotypes and poor differentiation, and its upregulation might serve as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target (Yokota et al., 2013YOKOTA, S., OGAWARA, K., KIMURA, R., SHIMIZU, F., BABA, T., MINAKAWA, Y., HIGO, M., KASAMATSU, A., ENDO-SAKAMOTO, Y., SHIIBA, M., TANZAWA, H. and UZAWA, K., 2013. Protein O-fucosyltransferase 1: a potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for human oral cancer. International Journal of Oncology, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 1864-1870. http://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2013.2110. PMid:24064921.
http://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2013.2110...
; Dong et al., 2017DONG, S., WANG, Z., HUANG, B., ZHANG, J., GE, Y., FAN, Q. and WANG, Z., 2017. Bioinformatics insight into glycosyltransferase gene expression in gastric cancer: POFUT1 is a potential biomarker. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 483, no. 1, pp. 171-177. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2016.12.172. PMid:28040433.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2016.12.17...
). POFUT2 has not received much attention in cancer, but its high expression is linked, already, to poor prognosis in colon adenocarcinoma (Wang et al., 2023WANG, P., LIU, X., YU, J., MENG, Z., LV, Z., SHANG, C., GENG, Q., WANG, D., XUE, D. and LI, L., 2023. Fucosyltransferases regulated by fusobacterium nucleatum and act as novel biomarkers in colon adenocarcinoma. Journal of Inflammation Research, vol. 16, pp. 747-768. http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484. PMid:36852302.
http://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S396484...
).

Epigenetic factors such as the expression of microRNAs are important factors for the gene regulation of fucosyltransferase expression. There are evidence that they are promising molecules for cancer treatment regarding their influence in tumor progression via fucosyltransferases expression. FUT4 is overexpressed in breast, lung, and colorectal cancer, impacting EMT, cell migration, invasion, proliferation, and metastasis (Zheng et al., 2017ZHENG, Q., CUI, X., ZHANG, D., YANG, Y., YAN, X., LIU, M., NIANG, B., AZIZ, F., LIU, S., YAN, Q. and LIU, J., 2017. miR-200b inhibits proliferation and metastasis of breast cancer by targeting fucosyltransferase IV and α1,3-fucosylated glycans. Oncogenesis, vol. 6, no. 7, e358. http://doi.org/10.1038/oncsis.2017.58. PMid:28692034.
http://doi.org/10.1038/oncsis.2017.58...
; Wang et al., 2017WANG, A., LU, C., NING, Z., GAO, W., XIE, Y., ZHANG, N., LIANG, J., ABBASI, F.S., YAN, Q. and LIU, J., 2017. Tumor-associated macrophages promote Ezrin phosphorylation-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition in lung adenocarcinoma through FUT4/LeY up-regulation. Oncotarget, vol. 8, no. 17, pp. 28247-28259. http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.16001. PMid:28423676.
http://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.16001...
; Li et al., 2017LI, Y., SUN, Z., LIU, B., SHAN, Y., ZHAO, L. and JIA, L., 2017. Tumour-suppressive miR-26a and miR-26b inhibit cell aggressiveness by regulating FUT4 in colorectal cancer. Cell Death & Disease, vol. 8, no. 6, e2892. http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2017.281. PMid:28640257.
http://doi.org/10.1038/cddis.2017.281...
). The miR-493-5p regulates breast cancer invasiveness and tumorigenicity by downregulating FUT4-mRNA (Zhao et al., 2016ZHAO, L., FENG, X., SONG, X., ZHOU, H., ZHAO, Y., CHENG, L. and JIA, L., 2016. MiR-493-5p attenuates the invasiveness and tumourigenicity in human breast cancer by targeting FUT4. Oncology Reports, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 1007-1015. http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2016.4882. PMid:27375041.
http://doi.org/10.3892/or.2016.4882...
). Additionally, high levels of miR-200b decrease fucosylation and LeY biosynthesis, downregulating EGFR via FUT4 mRNA and inhibiting proliferation and metastasis in breast cancer through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway (Zheng et al., 2017ZHENG, Q., CUI, X., ZHANG, D., YANG, Y., YAN, X., LIU, M., NIANG, B., AZIZ, F., LIU, S., YAN, Q. and LIU, J., 2017. miR-200b inhibits proliferation and metastasis of breast cancer by targeting fucosyltransferase IV and α1,3-fucosylated glycans. Oncogenesis, vol. 6, no. 7, e358. http://doi.org/10.1038/oncsis.2017.58. PMid:28692034.
http://doi.org/10.1038/oncsis.2017.58...
). The miR-106b targets FUT6-mRNA and its suppression increases FUT6 expression, reducing cell migration, invasion, and proliferation in breast cancer cell lines. Overexpression of FUT6 reverses these effects (Li et al., 2016LI, N., LIU, Y., MIAO, Y., ZHAO, L., ZHOU, H. and JIA, L., 2016. MicroRNA-106b targets FUT6 to promote cell migration, invasion, and proliferation in human breast cancer. IUBMB Life, vol. 68, no. 9, pp. 764-775. http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.1541. PMid:27519168.
http://doi.org/10.1002/iub.1541...
). miR-106b high expression is also observed in many cancers as gastric and prostate ones (Cai et al., 2013CAI, H., YUAN, Y., HAO, Y.F., GUO, T.K., WEI, X. and ZHANG, Y.M., 2013. Plasma microRNAs serve as novel potential biomarkers for early detection of gastric cancer. Medical Oncology, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 452. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-012-0452-0. PMid:23307259.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-012-0452-0...
; Yau et al., 2013YAU, W.L., LAM, C.S., NG, L., CHOW, A.K., CHAN, S.T., CHAN, J.Y., WO, J.Y., NG, K.T., MAN, K., POON, R.T. and PANG, R.W., 2013. Over-expression of miR-106b promotes cell migration and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma by activating epithelial-mesenchymal transition process. PLoS One, vol. 8, no. 3, e57882. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057882. PMid:23483935.
http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057...
).

5. Conclusion

FUTs family have proteins with redundant activity suggesting that fucosylation play a crucial role in modulating cellular molecular characteristics, impacting crucial physiopathological processes in the development and progression of cancer. FUTs rise as potential biomarkers in progression and prognosis, and as emerging potential therapeutic targets in cancer. So far, FUTs are correlated with relapse-free survival, overall survival, cell migration, invasion and metastasis, cellular death, proliferation and differentiation in cancer. However, indeed, very much are still to understand. The road ahead is long!

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    09 Sept 2024
  • Date of issue
    2024

History

  • Received
    18 Sept 2023
  • Accepted
    04 Feb 2024
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