Abstract
Red blood cell (RBC) membrane can reflect fatty acid (FA) contribution from diet and biosynthesis. In cancer, membrane FAs are involved in tumorigenesis and invasiveness, and are indicated as biomarkers to monitor the disease evolution as well as potential targets for therapies and nutritional strategies. The present study provides RBC membrane FA profiles in recently diagnosed breast cancer patients before starting chemotherapy treatment. Patients and controls were recruited, and their dietary habits were collected. FA lipidomic analysis of mature erythrocyte membrane phospholipids in blood samples was performed. Data were adjusted to correct for the effects of diet, body mass index (BMI), and age, revealing that patients showed lower levels of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and higher levels of monounsaturated fatty acid, cis-vaccenic (25%) than controls, with consequent differences in desaturase enzymatic index (∆9 desaturase, –13.1%). In the case of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), patients had higher values of ω-6 FA (C18:2 (+11.1%); C20:4 (+7.4%)). RBC membrane lipidomic analysis in breast cancer revealed that ω-6 pathways are favored. These results suggest new potential targets for treatments and better nutritional guidelines.
Highlights
Cancer is currently the major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide
For the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test, we considered as covariables the body mass index (BMI), age, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status, the three factors from the principal component analysis (PCA), and the rest of dietary components from Table 1 that were not introduced in PCA
In the cell replication process, the need of new membranes is a priority, since, it is trivial, no cell can exist without its membrane. This becomes especially important for cancer cells where the recruitment of fatty acids for membrane lipids cannot be based only on the biosynthesis, and it has been shown that phospholipids with one fatty acid tail are scavenged from serum lipids [24]
Summary
Cancer is currently the major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In 2018, the incidence of the disease resulted in 18.1 million of new cases and 9.6 million of deaths [1]. The forecasts indicate a huge increase in these values, with 29.5 million new cases and 16.5 million deaths in 2040 [2]. Efforts on finding new strategies and solutions are needed to face difficulties that the disease presents. The importance of the cell membrane emerges as an essential structure for cell replication that modulates its composition and participates in survival, proliferation and migration processes in cancer. In recent years, membrane has been proposed as a promising target that may help current therapies [3,4,5]
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