In vivo library screening identifies the metabolic enzyme aldolase A as a promoter of metastatic lung colonization.

ABSTRACT: Elucidations of the factors that promote the growth of disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) into life-threatening lesions stand to provide much needed prognostic and therapeutic targets of translational utility for patients with metastatic cancer. To identify such regulators, we conducted gain-of-function cDNA library screening to discover genes that foster prostate cancer cell colonization of mouse lungs as an experimental model. Our efforts identified the metabolic enzyme aldolase A (ALDOA) as a driver of cancer cell motility, anchorage-independent growth, and metastatic colonization, and as a prognosticator of adverse patient outcome across many malignancies, including prostate, breast, pancreatic, and liver cancers. Metabolomics coupled with biochemical and functional analyses revealed that

SUBMITTER: Tu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8138724 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature