Associations Between Genetically Predicted Plasma N-Glycans and Prostate Cancer Risk: Analysis of Over 140,000 European Descendants

• Main Authors: Liu D, Zhu J, Zhao T, Sharapov S, Tiys E, Wu L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2021-09-01
• Series: Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine
• Subjects: plasma n-glycans; prostate cancer; risk
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/associations-between-genetically-predicted-plasma-n-glycans-and-prosta-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-PGPM

Duo Liu,1,2,* Jingjing Zhu,2,* Tianying Zhao,2,3,* Sodbo Sharapov,4 Evgeny Tiys,4 Lang Wu2 1Department of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, People’s Republic of China; 2Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA; 3Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA; 4Laboratory of Glycogenomics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk, Russia*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Lang WuCancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USATel [phone]Email [e-mail]: Previous studies suggest a potential link between glycosylation and prostate cancer. To better characterize the relationship between the two, we performed a study to comprehensively evaluate the associations between genetically predicted blood plasma N-glycan levels and prostate cancer risk.Methods: Using genetic variants associated with N-glycan levels as instruments, we evaluated the associations between levels of 138 plasma N-glycans and prostate cancer risk. We analyzed data of 79,194 cases and 61,112 controls of European ancestry included in the consortia of BPC3, CAPS, CRUK, PEGASUS, and PRACTICAL.Results: We identified three N-glycans with genetically predicted levels in plasma to be associated with prostate cancer risk after Bonferroni correction. The estimated odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 1.29 (1.20– 1.40), 0.80 (0.74– 0.88), and 0.79 (0.72– 0.87) for PGP18, PGP33, and PGP109, respectively, per every one standard deviation increase in genetically predicted levels of N-glycan. However, the instruments for these N-glycans only involved one to two variants. The proportions of variations that can be explained by the instruments range from 1.58% to 2.95% for these three N-glycans.Conclusion: We observed associations between genetically predicted levels of three N-glycans PGP18, PGP33, and PGP109 and prostate cancer risk. Given the correlated nature of the N-glycans and that many N-glycans share genetic loci, pleiotropy is a major concern. Future work is warranted to better characterize the relationship between N-glycans and prostate cancer.Keywords: plasma N-glycans, prostate cancer, risk