Carbohydrate sulfotransferases: a review of emerging diagnostic and prognostic applications

• Published in: Biochemia medica Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 030503 - 265
• Main Authors: Begolli, Gramos, Marković, Ivana, Knežević, Jelena, Debeljak, Željko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Croatia Medicinska naklada 15-10-2023; Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine
• Subjects: cancer; carbohydrate sulfotransferases; connective tissue; COVID-19; COVID-19 Testing; Humans; inflammation; Mutation; Prognosis; Sulfotransferases - genetics; Sulfotransferases - metabolism; tumour markers; cancer; tumour markers; connective tissue; inflammation; carbohydrate sulfotransferases
• ISSN: 1330-0962; 1846-7482
• DOI: 10.11613/BM.2023.030503

Carbohydrate sulfotransferases (CHST) catalyse the biosynthesis of proteoglycans that enable physical interactions and signalling between different neighbouring cells in physiological and pathological states. The study aim was to provide an overview of emerging diagnostic and prognostic applications of CHST. PubMed database search was conducted using the keywords "carbohydrate sulfotransferase" together with appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria, whereby 41 publications were selected. Additionally, 40 records on CHST genetic and biochemical properties were hand-picked from UniProt, GeneCards, InterPro, and neXtProt databases. Carbohydrate sulfotransferases have been applied mainly in diagnostics of connective tissue disorders, cancer and inflammations. The lack of CHST activity was found in congenital connective tissue disorders while CHST overexpression was detected in different malignancies. Mutations of
gene cause skeletal dysplasia, chondrodysplasia, and autosomal recessive multiple joint dislocations while increased tissue expression of
,
and
is an unfavourable prognostic factor in ovarian cancer, glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer, respectively. Recently,
and
overexpression in the vascular smooth muscle cells was linked to the severe lung pathology in COVID-19 patients. Promising CHST diagnostic and prognostic applications have been described but larger clinical studies and robust analytical procedures are required for the more reliable diagnostic performance estimations.