Project description:Small cell lung cancer (SCLC), accounts for about 15 percent of all lung cancers, is a neuroendocrine type of carcinoma and is incredibly aggressive, with a dire diagnosis of 5% survival at 5 years. FDA-approved therapies for this disease are almost exclusively limited to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, to which resistance arises within months. Despite global sequencing efforts, few activating mutations have been discovered in SCLC tumors, and targetable alterations account for very small subsets of patients. Due to this lack of a strong oncogenic driver for conventional targeted therapy, SCLC has the potential to benefit from non-oncogene-addiction-based therapeutic approaches. We therefore focused on finding novel non-mutated pathways which could be targetable in SCLC. Restricting our search to kinases, a highly-targetable group of enzymes, we elucidated the active kinome of SCLC and upon identifying MEK5 as a SCLC-specific active kinase, further investigated the role of the MEK5-ERK5 kinase axis in this tumor type. We found that reduction in this axis in both human and murine SCLC cells causes increased susceptibility to apoptosis, and decreased subcutaneous tumor growth in vivo. Transcriptomic analysis of MEK5 and ERK5-knockdown cells showed downregulation of lipid metabolism pathways and SREBP target genes. Based on targeted lipidomics analyses of these same cells, which showed downregulated cholesterol ester species, we focused on the mevalonate arm of the SREBP pathway.
Project description:Stanniocalcin 1 (STC1) plays an integral role in the metastasis of ovarian cancer. However, the functional role of STC1 in lipid metabolism is not fully understood. Single-cell sequencing assays verified that STC1 expression was significantly enhanced in ovarian cancer tissues compared with para-carcinoma tissues, and it was further up-regulated in peritoneal metastasis tissues compared with tumor tissues. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that STC1 promoted cell proliferation and metastasis by enhancing lipid metabolism. Mechanistically, STC1 directly bound to integrin β6 (ITGB6) and activated the PI3K signaling pathway. Moreover, STC1 was directly regulated by FOXC2 and FOXC2 was up-regulated and positively correlated with STC1 in ovarian cancer. Notably, STC1 knockdown had a synergistic effect with cisplatin (DDP) chemotherapy.Overall, these findings reveal that STC1 increases metastasis by promoting lipid metabolism via the FOXC2/ITGB6 signaling axis and may be a potential target for chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer.
Project description:The pyruvate kinase M2 isoform (PKM2) is preferentially expressed in cancer to regulate anabolic metabolism. However, the metabolic requirements of PKM2 in tumorigenesis have yielded contradictory results. Herein we discovered that this glycolytic enzyme regulates lipid homeostasis in cancer cell autonomous manner and at systemic levels. Transmembrane protein 33 (TMEM33) was identified as a downstream effector of PKM2, whose expression level positively correlates with plasma total cholesterol level in vivo. Loss of PKM2 leads to up-regulation of TMEM33, which recruits ring finger protein 5 (RNF5) to promote SCAP ubiquitination and degradation, thereby inhibiting Golgi translocation and activation of sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1). Moreover, global PKM2 knockout promoted allografted tumor growth, at least partially attributes to the elevated plasma cholesterol level caused by increased intestinal Niemann-Pick C1-Like 1 (NPC1L1) to facilitate cholesterol absorption. Collectively, PKM2-TMEM33 axis modulates cell autonomous lipid metabolism by regulating SREBP activation. PKM2 in small intestine plays critical functions in controlling systemic cholesterol level. Overall, our results underscore unappreciated functions of PKM2 in lipid homeostasis and imply that combining an allosteric activator of PKM2 with NPC1L1 inhibitor represents a therapeutic invention for cancer treatment.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) thrives in a nutrient-deprived microenvironment, making it particularly susceptible to treatments that interfere with cancer metabolism. For example, PDAC utilizes and is dependent on high levels of autophagy and other lysosomal processes. Although targeting these pathways has shown potential in pre-clinical studies, progress has been hampered by the challenge of identifying and characterizing favorable targets for drug development. Here, we characterize PIKfyve, a lipid kinase integral to lysosomal functioning as a novel and targetable vulnerability in PDAC. Through comprehensive metabolic analyses we find that PIKfyve inhibition obligates PDAC to upregulate de novo lipid synthesis, a relationship previously undescribed. PIKfyve inhibition triggers a distinct lipogenic gene expression and metabolic program, creating a dependency on de novo lipid metabolism pathways, including genes such as FASN and ACACA. These results suggest that targeting PIKfyve disrupts lysosome-dependent lipid metabolism in PDAC and may be a favorable metabolic target for therapeutic development. Further, this data suggests that one could take advantage of this synthetic dependency by co-targeting PIKfyve and FASN or ACACA as a therapeutic strategy.
Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) thrives in a nutrient-deprived microenvironment, making it particularly susceptible to treatments that interfere with cancer metabolism. For example, PDAC utilizes and is dependent on high levels of autophagy and other lysosomal processes. Although targeting these pathways has shown potential in pre-clinical studies, progress has been hampered by the challenge of identifying and characterizing favorable targets for drug development. Here, we characterize PIKfyve, a lipid kinase integral to lysosomal functioning as a novel and targetable vulnerability in PDAC. Through comprehensive metabolic analyses we find that PIKfyve inhibition obligates PDAC to upregulate de novo lipid synthesis, a relationship previously undescribed. PIKfyve inhibition triggers a distinct lipogenic gene expression and metabolic program, creating a dependency on de novo lipid metabolism pathways, including genes such as FASN and ACACA. These results suggest that targeting PIKfyve disrupts lysosome-dependent lipid metabolism in PDAC and may be a favorable metabolic target for therapeutic development. Further, this data suggests that one could take advantage of this synthetic dependency by co-targeting PIKfyve and FASN or ACACA as a therapeutic strategy.
Project description:Unlike other members of the MAPK family, ERK5 contains a large C-terminal domain with transcriptional activation capability in addition to an N-terminal canonical kinase domain. Genetic deletion of ERK5 is embryonic lethal and tissue-restricted deletions have profound effects on erythroid development, cardiac function and neurogenesis. In addition, depletion of ERK5 is anti-inflammatory and anti-tumorigenic. Small molecule inhibition of ERK5 has been shown to have promising activity in cell and animal models of inflammation and oncology. Here we report the synthesis and biological characterization of potent, selective ERK5 inhibitors. In contrast to both genetic depletion/deletion of ERK5 and inhibition with previously reported compounds, inhibition of the kinase with the most selective of the new inhibitors had no anti-inflammatory or anti-proliferative activity. The source of efficacy in previously reported ERK5 inhibitors is shown to be off-target activity on bromodomains (BRDs), conserved protein modules involved in recognition of acetyl-lysine residues during transcriptional processes. It is likely that phenotypes reported from genetic deletion or depletion of ERK5 arise from removal of a non-catalytic function of ERK5. The newly reported inhibitors should be useful in determining which of the many reported phenotypes are due to kinase activity, and delineate which can be pharmacologically targeted.
Project description:ERK5 is a dual kinase-transcription factor, which contains an N-terminal kinase domain and transactivation domains in the C-terminal half. Many ERK5 kinase inhibitors have been developed and tested to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases. However, recent data have raised questions regarding the functional role of ERK5 kinase inhibitors. We aimed to investigate how ERK5 reprograms myeloid cells (MC) to the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), consequently leading to atherosclerosis. We showed that atherosclerosis was inhibited in ERK5 S496A (dephosphorylation mimic) knock-in (KI) mice. Furthermore, ERK5 S496 phosphorylation was required for not only SASP but also senescence-associated cell growth (SACG) observed in the plaque via upregulation of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). We also discovered a key effect of ERK5 S496 phosphorylation on SUMOylation at a novel site of NRF2 (i.e., K518), which inhibited NRF2 transcriptional activity without affecting ERK5 kinase activity and antagonized oxidized LDL (oxLDL)-induced SASP. Specific ERK5 kinase inhibitors (AX15836 and XMD8-92) both inhibited oxLDL-induced ERK5 S496 phosphorylation, suggesting that ERK5 S496 phosphorylation was involved at least in part of the effects of these inhibitors. We have discovered a novel mechanism, in which ERK5 S496 phosphorylation directly inhibits NRF2 activity by upregulating NRF2 K518 SUMOylation, and induces SACG and atherosclerosis.
Project description:Despite a variety of seasoning ingredients in diets, little is known about their cooperative effect on animal metabolism. We fed rats a diet containing 30 wt.% instant noodle with a 26% fat-to-energy ratio for 30 days (N-group). Compared with rats that were fed the same diet without seasonings (C-group), the N-group showed lower liver triacylglycerol levels and higher fecal cholesterol levels. To assess the mechanisms underlying this phenotype, we conducted transcriptome analyses of the hypothalamic–pituitary axis (HP), liver and white adipose tissue (WAT). Our results suggest that these ingredients may affect lipid homeostasis via the HP axis.