Breast cancer proteomics reveals a positive correlation between glyoxalase 1 expression and high tumor grade

Breast cancer is the neoplasia with the highest incidence in women worldwide. Proteomics approaches have accelerated the discovery of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Here, we compared the proteomic profiles of breast tumors versus non-tumoral tissues in order to identify modulated proteins, which could represent potential markers associated to clinical features. By two-dimensional electrophoresis, we detected 28 differentially expressed proteins. Among these, 21 proteins were up-regulated and 7 were down-regulated in tumors (p<0.05). Proteins were identified using LC/ESI-MS/MS tandem mass spectrometry. One protein was identified as glyoxalase 1 (GLO1), an enzyme involved in detoxification of methylglyoxal, a cytotoxic product of glycolysis. GLO1 overexpression was confirmed by western blot assays in paired normal and tumor breast tissues in clinical stages I-III, and by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays (TMA) comprising a cohort of 98 breast tumors and 20 healthy specimens. Results from TMA demonstrated that GLO1 is overexpressed in 79% of tumors. Interestingly, GLO1 up-regulation correlates with advanced tumor grade (p<0.05). These findings demonstrate the association of GLO1 overexpression with tumor grade and pointed out for additional studies to establish the importance of GLO1 in breast cancer.