CMyc-mediated activation of serine biosynthesis pathway is critical for cancer progression under nutrient deprivation conditions.

ABSTRACT: Cancer cells are known to undergo metabolic reprogramming to sustain survival and rapid proliferation, however, it remains to be fully elucidated how oncogenic lesions coordinate the metabolic switch under various stressed conditions. Here we show that deprivation of glucose or glutamine, two major nutrition sources for cancer cells, dramatically activated serine biosynthesis pathway (SSP) that was accompanied by elevated cMyc expression. We further identified that cMyc stimulated SSP activation by transcriptionally upregulating expression of multiple SSP enzymes. Moreover, we demonstrated that SSP activation facilitated by cMyc led to elevated glutathione (GSH) production, cell cycle progression and nucleic acid synthesis, which are essential for cell survival and proliferation especially

SUBMITTER: Sun L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4387561 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature