A growing body of evidence indicates that the levels of fucosylation correlate with breast cancer progression and contribute to metastatic disease. However, very little is known about the signaling and functional outcomes that are driven by fucosylation. We performed a global proteomic analysis of 4T1 metastatic mammary tumor cells in the presence and absence of a fucosylation inhibitor, 2-fluorofucose (2FF). Of significant interest, pathway analysis based on our results revealed a reduction in the NF-κB and TNF signaling pathways, which regulate the inflammatory response. NF-κB is a transcription factor that is pro-tumorigenic and a prime target in human cancer. We validated our results, confirming that treatment of 4T1 cells with 2FF led to a decrease in NF-κB activity through increased IκBα. Based on these observations, we conclude that fucosylation is an important post-translational modification that governs breast cancer cell signaling.
Keywords: N-glycosylation; NF-κB; breast cancer; fucosylation; metastasis.