Immunohistochemical Analysis of Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase Expression in Gastric and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma (AEG)

oleh: Alexander Arnold, Moritz von Winterfeld, Erika Berg, Michael Hummel, Beate Rau, Felix Krenzien, Ulrike Stein, Christoph Treese

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-12-01

Deskripsi

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) represents a major component in cellular energy metabolism, which is also crucial for cancer cells that have elevated aerobic glycolysis; moreover, targeting the NAD salvage pathway by inhibition of NAMPT was shown effective in a subgroup of gastric cancer cell lines. In order to study the expression levels of NAMPT in adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction and stomach (AEG/S) we performed immunohistochemical analysis in a cohort of 296 tumor samples using tissue-microarrays (TMAs). In the present investigation, we saw a high expression of NAMPT in only a minority of our large AEG/S cohort. Although we did not find a correlation between NAMPT expression and survival, subgroup analysis showed that NAMPT expression was more frequent in older patients (>65 years, <i>p</i> = 0.049) and was associated with a numerical shorter survival that did not reach statistical significance within this age group. In conclusion, we did not find significance for any prognostic effect of NAMPT in our AEG/S cohort; however, the evaluation of other NAD metabolic enzymes is needed as molecular predictors of response to potential NAMPT inhibition in the treatment of patients with AEG/S.