Evidence for an alternative fatty acid desaturation pathway increasing cancer plasticity.

ABSTRACT: Most tumours have an aberrantly activated lipid metabolism^1,2 that enables them to synthesize, elongate and desaturate fatty acids to support proliferation. However, only particular subsets of cancer cells are sensitive to approaches that target fatty acid metabolism and, in particular, fatty acid desaturation³. This suggests that many cancer cells contain an unexplored plasticity in their fatty acid metabolism. Here we show that some cancer cells can exploit an alternative fatty acid desaturation pathway. We identify various cancer cell lines, mouse hepatocellular carcinomas, and primary human liver and lung carcinomas that desaturate palmitate to the unusual fatty acid sapienate to support membrane biosynthesis during proliferation. Accordingly, we found that sapien

SUBMITTER: Vriens K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6390935 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature