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Arginine starvation kills tumor cells through aspartate exhaustion and mitochondrial dysfunction.


ABSTRACT: Defective arginine synthesis, due to the silencing of argininosuccinate synthase 1 (ASS1), is a common metabolic vulnerability in cancer, known as arginine auxotrophy. Understanding how arginine depletion kills arginine-auxotrophic cancer cells will facilitate the development of anti-cancer therapeutic strategies. Here we show that depletion of extracellular arginine in arginine-auxotrophic cancer cells causes mitochondrial distress and transcriptional reprogramming. Mechanistically, arginine starvation induces asparagine synthetase (ASNS), depleting these cancer cells of aspartate, and disrupting their malate-aspartate shuttle. Supplementation of aspartate, depletion of mitochondria, and knockdown of ASNS all protect the arginine-starved cells, establishing the causal effects of aspartate depletion and mitochondrial dysfunction on the arginine starvation-induced cell death. Furthermore, dietary arginine restriction reduced tumor growth in a xenograft model of ASS1-deficient breast cancer. Our data challenge the view that ASNS promotes homeostasis, arguing instead that ASNS-induced aspartate depletion promotes cytotoxicity, which can be exploited for anti-cancer therapies.

SUBMITTER: Cheng CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6203837 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Defective arginine synthesis, due to the silencing of <i>argininosuccinate synthase 1</i> (ASS1), is a common metabolic vulnerability in cancer, known as arginine auxotrophy. Understanding how arginine depletion kills arginine-auxotrophic cancer cells will facilitate the development of anti-cancer therapeutic strategies. Here we show that depletion of extracellular arginine in arginine-auxotrophic cancer cells causes mitochondrial distress and transcriptional reprogramming. Mechanistically, argi  ...[more]

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