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.
Keywords: Gastric cancer; PFKFB3; biomarker; cell migration; cell proliferation.