Abstract
BACKGROUND: Beta-1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase 3 (B3GNT3) is a member of the glycosyltransferase family, which is widely distributed in the Golgi apparatus and plasma membrane. However, the role of B3GNT3 in human pan-cancer has not yet been systematically analyzed and evaluated. This study aims to assess the expression profiles of B3GNT3 in different types of cancers and its potential clinical significance through a pan-cancer analysis. METHODS: Public data were derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program and The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) website. Data analysis relied on algorithms provided by websites designed for different functional purposes. We performed expression analysis, correlation analysis with pathological staging, survival analysis, and co-expression gene correlation analysis of B3GNT3 using Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis 2.0 (GEPIA2.0). We analyzed the expression of B3GNT3 and its correlation with cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) infiltration using Tumor Immune Response Estimation and Analysis 2.0 (TIMER2.0). The expression of B3GNT3 in various human tissues was investigated using the Human Protein Atlas (HPA). Protein expression levels of B3GNT3 in tumors were analyzed using University of Alabama Cancer Database (UALCAN). The mutation frequency and types of B3GNT3 were examined using the cBioPortal platform. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis was conducted using the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) database. Expression of B3GNT3 in real-world cases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD), colon adenocarcinoma (COAD), lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC), and ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma (OV) from The Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University (The First People's Hospital of Shunde, Foshan) were validated using immunohistochemistry between tumour and normal tissues. RESULTS: B3GNT3 expression was significantly different in 18 cancer tissues compared to corresponding normal tissues, with 15 showing significant upregulation and three showing significant downregulation. Patients with B3GNT3 gene alterations exhibited significant changes in overall survival (OS) across five cancer types and in disease-free survival (DFS) across four cancer types. The expression of B3GNT3 was significantly consistent with CAFs levels in four algorithms across ten cancer types. Co-expression analysis revealed that B3GNT3 was positively correlated with PLS1, MISP, GPR35, EPS8L3 and FUT3 in most cancer types. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis suggested that B3GNT3 might participate in tumorigenesis through the tight junctions (TJs) pathway, while Gene Ontology (GO) pathway enrichment analysis revealed significant enrichment in "protein O-linked glycosylation", "bicellular tight junction" and "actin filament binding", indicating its potential involvement in key mechanisms such as tumor initiation, metastasis and microenvironment remodeling. Immunohistochemical validation confirmed that B3GNT3 is highly expressed in real-world cases of PAAD, COAD, LUAD, UCEC, and OV. CONCLUSIONS: Pan-cancer analysis of B3GNT3 reveals complex regulatory mechanisms across different types of cancer, emerging as a novel biomarker for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, and offers new avenues for targeted therapeutic development.