Bioinformatics analyses suggested that high BCL2L1 (encoded Bcl-xL) and low BAX were, in part, associated with poor prognosis of MCL patients, e.g., when combined with low OGT, which regulates cellular O-GlcNAcylation. Our findings support recent strategies in small molecule drug discovery co-targeting antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins using BH3 mimetics and Bax using Bax activators to overcome cancer drug resistance.
Analysis of clinical specimens found that high SAM68 expression was associated with late cancer stages, and patients with high-OGT/high-SAM68 expression in their tumors had poorer overall survival compared to those with low-OGT/low-SAM68 expression. Our study revealed an invasiveness-associated O-GlcNAc proteome profile and connected O-GlcNAcylated SAM68 to lung cancer aggressiveness.