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MCL-1 Drives a Metabolic Dependency on Fatty Acid Oxidation in Cancer Independent of its Anti-Apoptotic Function

ABSTRACT: MCL-1 is an anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family protein essential to the survival of diverse cell types and is a major driver of cancer and chemoresistance. The unique oncogenic supremacy of MCL-1, as compared to its anti-apoptotic homologs, suggests that it has additional functions to complement apoptotic suppression. Here, we find that MCL-1-dependent hematologic cancer cells selectively rely on fatty acid oxidation (FAO) as a fuel source due to metabolic wiring enforced by MCL-1 itself. Importantly, this metabolic function is independent of anti-apoptotic activity, as demonstrated by metabolomic, proteomic, and genomic profiling of MCL-1-dependent leukemia cells lacking pro-apoptotic BAX and BAK. Genetic deletion of Mcl-1 results in selective downregulation of proteins within the FAO pathway, accompanied by cell death upon glucose deprivation despite apoptotic blockade. Our data reveal that MCL-1 drives a programmatic dependency on FAO in hematologic cancer cells, which can be effectively targeted by FAO inhibitors.

INSTRUMENT(S): Orbitrap Fusion Lumos

ORGANISM(S): Mus Musculus (mouse)

SUBMITTER: Joao Paulo

LAB HEAD: Loren Walensky

PROVIDER: PXD031364 | Pride | 2022-10-03

REPOSITORIES: Pride

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Project description:Amyloid light chain amyloidosis (AL) is an incurable protein misfolding disorder characterized by the production of amyloidogenic immunoglobulin light chains by clonal populations of plasma cells. These abnormal light chains accumulate as amyloid fibrils in vital organs and cause multi-organ dysfunction that can be rapidly fatal. Current treatment regimens, which include proteasome inhibitors, were developed for the treatment of the more common plasma cell disease multiple myeloma and have demonstrated efficacy in AL amyloidosis. However, use of these agents is frequently limited due to multi-organ dysfunction at presentation, resulting in a median survival of 2-3 years and underscoring the need for novel therapies. By analyzing bone marrow-derived plasma cells from 44 patients with AL amyloidosis, we find that clonal plasma cells are highly primed to undergo apoptosis and exhibit strong dependencies on pro-survival BCL-2 family proteins that can potentially be targeted by recently-developed BH3 mimetics. In particular, we find that clonal plasma cells are highly dependent on the pro-survival MCL-1 and undergo apoptosis in response to single-agent treatment with an MCL-1 inhibitor. Notably, this MCL-1 dependency is indirectly targeted by the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib, which is currently the standard of care for this disease, via the stabilization of Noxa and its direct inhibitory binding to MCL-1. BCL-2 inhibition with the FDA-approved inhibitor venetoclax (ABT-199) sensitizes plasma cells to bortezomib treatment and other front-line therapies, which can be observed in vitro and in vivo. Mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis reveals changes in signaling pathways regulating apoptosis, proliferation and mitochondrial metabolism between isogenic AL amyloidosis and multiple myeloma cells that divergently alter their sensitivity to therapy. Overall, our results indicate that BH3 mimetics may be highly effective therapies for AL amyloidosis that exploit inherent and induced dependencies on pro-survival proteins.

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MCL-1 Drives a Metabolic Dependency on Fatty Acid Oxidation in Cancer Independent of its Anti-Apoptotic Function

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