Glycolytic biomarkers predict transformation in patients with follicular lymphoma

PLoS One. 2020 May 22;15(5):e0233449. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233449. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent neoplasia comprising approximately 20% of lymphomas. FL is generally considered incurable, with a median survival exceeding 10 years. A subset of FL patients experiences histological transformation (HT) to a more aggressive lymphoma, resulting in markedly poorer clinical outcome, with a reduced median survival after transformation of 1-2 years. Early, reliable prediction of HT would be valuable in the clinical setting, allowing pre-emptive therapeutic intervention. We previously used proteomics to identify the glycolytic enzymes fructose-bisphosphate aldolase A (aldolase A) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as candidate predictors of FL transformation. Now, we use immunohistochemistry to evaluate expression of these enzymes in paired primary FLs from patients with (n = 41) or without subsequent HT (n = 49), to test their value as predictive biomarkers. At initial FL diagnosis, patients with subsequent HT had significantly higher expression of aldolase A and GAPDH (p<0.001 and p<0.01) compared with patients without HT. Furthermore, high expression of aldolase A and GAPDH was associated with significantly shorter transformation free survival (p = 0.018, p = 0.001). These data suggest that high expression of aldolase A and GAPDH, may indicate increased metabolic turnover, and that these enzymes may be useful biomarkers in primary FL for predicting the risk of subsequent lymphoma transformation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / metabolism*
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / pathology*
  • Cohort Studies
  • Female
  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase / metabolism*
  • Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (Phosphorylating) / metabolism*
  • Glycolysis*
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Lymphoma, Follicular / metabolism*
  • Lymphoma, Follicular / pathology*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Prognosis

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • GAPDH protein, human
  • Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (Phosphorylating)
  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Danish Lymphoma Group (IM), donation from Peter and Alice Madsen (ML), The Merchant Einer Willumsen Memorial Foundation (ML) and the Central Denmark Region (IM).