Pregnancy-specific glycoproteins as potential drug targets for female lung adenocarcinoma patients Journal Article


Authors: Oh, J. H.; Rizzuto, G.; Elkin, R.; Weistuch, C.; Norton, L.; Dveksler, G.; Deasy, J. O.
Article Title: Pregnancy-specific glycoproteins as potential drug targets for female lung adenocarcinoma patients
Abstract: Recently, the mRNA presence of pregnancy-specific glycoproteins (PSGs) in cancer biopsies has been shown to be associated with poor survival. Given the pregnancy-related function of PSGs, we hypothesized that PSGs might act in a sex-dependent behavior in cancer patients. A differential sex effect of PSG genes with respect to tumor immune landscape and cancer outcomes was investigated using statistical, bioinformatic, and machine learning analyses in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data. The resulting findings were then validated in the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) data. In a pan-cancer TCGA data analysis, the strongest PSG-related sex difference for the prognostic association was found in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that expression of PSG genes is strongly associated with overall survival rate in the female group on the TCGA, but not in the male group. This sex-specific association was validated in an independent dataset from the CPTAC study. A combination of PSG3, PSG7, and PSG8 expression was most significantly linked to poor prognosis in females (P = 8.67E-06 in TCGA and P =. 0382 in CPTAC). Pathway analysis revealed enrichment of the 'KRAS Signaling Down' pathway in the high-risk female group. A predictive model showed good predictive performance for the female group (validated C-index = 0.78 in CPTAC), but poor predictive performance for the male group. These findings suggest that PSGs may have a sex-specific negative impact on survival in female LUAD patients, and the mechanism may be related to KRAS signaling pathway modulation. © 2025 The Author(s).
Keywords: lung cancer; differential sex effect; kras signaling pathway; pregnancy-specific glycoproteins
Journal Title: Briefings in Functional Genomics
Volume: 24
ISSN: 2041-2657
Publisher: Oxford University Press  
Date Published: 2025-01-01
Start Page: elaf004
Language: English
DOI: 10.1093/bfgp/elaf004
PROVIDER: scopus
PMCID: PMC12010166
PUBMED: 40257008
DOI/URL:
Notes: The MSK Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA008748) is acknowledge in the PDF -- Corresponding authors is MSK author: Jung Hun Oh -- Source: Scopus
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MSK Authors
  1. Larry Norton
    756 Norton
  2. Jung Hun Oh
    187 Oh
  3. Joseph Owen Deasy
    521 Deasy
  4. Gabrielle A Rizzuto
    31 Rizzuto
  5. Rena Elkin
    15 Elkin