Non-metabolic function of MTHFD2 activates CDK2 in bladder cancer.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Liu X
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8645701 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Antigenic stimulation promotes T cell metabolic reprogramming to meet increased biosynthetic, bioenergetic, and signaling demands. We show that the one-carbon (1C) metabolism enzyme methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 (MTHFD2) regulates de novo purine synthesis and signaling in activated T cells to promote proliferation and inflammatory cytokine production. In pathogenic T helper-17 (Th17) cells, MTHFD2 prevented aberrant upregulation of the transcription factor FoxP3 along with inappropriate gain of suppressive capacity. MTHFD2 deficiency also promoted regulatory T (Treg) cell differentiation. Mechanistically, MTHFD2 inhibition led to depletion of purine pools, accumulation of purine biosynthetic intermediates, and decreased nutrient sensor mTORC1 signaling. MTHFD2 was also critical to regulate DNA and histone methylation in Th17 cells. Importantly, MTHFD2 deficiency reduced disease severity in multiple in vivo inflammatory disease models. MTHFD2 is thus a metabolic checkpoint to integrate purine metabolism with pathogenic effector cell signaling and is a potential therapeutic target within 1C metabolism pathways.
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Project description:Patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) undergo lifelong monitoring based on repeated cystoscopy and urinary cytology due to the high recurrence rate of this tumor. Nevertheless, these techniques have some drawbacks, namely, low accuracy in detection of low-grade tumors, omission of pre-neoplastic lesions and carcinomas in situ (CIS), invasiveness, and high costs. This work aims to identify a urinary metabolomic signature of recurrence by proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy for the follow-up of NMIBC patients. To do this, changes in the urinary metabolome before and after transurethral resection (TUR) of tumors are analyzed and a Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) model is developed. The usefulness of this discriminant model for the detection of tumor recurrences is assessed using a cohort of patients undergoing monitoring. The trajectories of the metabolomic profile in the follow-up period provide a negative predictive value of 92.7% in the sample classification. Pathway analyses show taurine, alanine, aspartate, glutamate, and phenylalanine perturbed metabolism associated with NMIBC. These results highlight the potential of 1H NMR metabolomics to detect bladder cancer (BC) recurrences through a non-invasive approach.
| S-EPMC6678457 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Although combination chemotherapy is widely used for bladder cancer (BC) treatment, the recurrence and progression rates remain high. Therefore, novel therapeutic targets are required. Methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 (MTHFD2) contributes to tumourigenesis and immune evasion in several cancers; however, its biological function in BC remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the expression, prognostic value and protumoural function of MTHFD2 in BC and elucidate the mechanism of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) upregulation by MTHFD2. An analysis using publicly available databases revealed that a high MTHFD2 expression was correlated with clinical features and a poor prognosis in BC. Furthermore, MTHFD2 promoted the growth, migration, invasion and tumourigenicity and decreased the apoptosis of BC cells in vivo and in vitro. The results obtained from databases showed that MTHFD2 expression was correlated with immune infiltration levels, PD-L1 expression, and the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathway. The expression of MTHFD2, PD-L1 and JAK/STAT signalling pathway-related proteins increased after interferon gamma treatment and decreased after MTHFD2 knockdown. Moreover, addition of a JAK/STAT pathway activator partially reduced the effect of MTHFD2 knockdown on BC cells. Collectively, our findings suggest that MTHFD2 promotes the expression of PD-L1 through the JAK/STAT signalling pathway in BC.
| S-EPMC10538262 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 (MTHFD2) has been implicated in the etiology of various human malignant tumors; however, its exact role in bladder cancer (BC) remains to be explored. Through reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry detection of BC tissue, combined with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database analysis, the present study demonstrated that MTHFD2 was upregulated in BC tissues. MTHFD2 expression in patients with BC was frequently associated with worse prognosis, tumor immune cell infiltration and programmed death‑ligand 1 (PD‑L1) expression. Subsequently, using short hairpin RNA, the expression levels of MTHFD2 were knocked down in BC cell lines, and the results revealed that the tumor cell proliferation and colony formation abilities of cells were greatly reduced, as determined by Cell Counting Kit 8 and colony formation assays, as was the expression of PD‑L1, as determined by western blotting. These findings were also confirmed in a xenograft nude mouse model. Simultaneously, it was revealed that abnormal expression of MTHFD2 was closely associated with the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in both RNA‑sequencing and TCGA datasets. This observation was verified in vitro by detecting the protein expression levels of PI3K and AKT by western blotting. The activation of PI3K and AKT was enhanced in BC cells (T24) following stimulation with 740Y‑P, a PI3K activator, and cellular activities and PD‑L1 expression levels were restored. Finally, it was demonstrated that the MTHFD2 levels were correlated with chemosensitivity to traditional BC chemotherapeutic agents and various PI3K/AKT‑targeted drugs, as determined by analyzing the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer database. Overall, the present findings revealed that upregulation of MTHFD2 was associated with PD‑L1 activation in BC via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, suggesting that it could be a promising marker of chemotherapy and immunotherapy for BC.
| S-EPMC9869724 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Estrogens are required for the proliferation of hormone dependent breast cancer cells, making estrogen receptor (ER) positive tumors amenable to endocrine therapies such as antiestrogens. However, resistance to these agents remains a significant cause of treatment failure. We previously demonstrated that inactivation of the retinoblastoma protein (pRb) family tumor suppressors causes antiestrogen resistance in MCF-7 cells, a widely studied model of estrogen responsive human breast cancers. In this study, we investigate the mechanism by which pRb inactivation leads to antiestrogen resistance. Cdk4 and cdk2 are two key cell cycle regulators that can phosphorylate and inactivate pRb, therefore we tested whether these kinases are required in cells lacking pRb function. pRb family members were inactivated in MCF-7 cells by expressing polyomavirus large tumor antigen (PyLT), and cdk activity was inhibited using the cdk inhibitors p16(INK4A) and p21(Waf1/Cip1). Cdk4 activity was no longer required in cells lacking functional pRb, while cdk2 activity was required for proliferation in both the presence and absence of pRb function. Using inducible PyLT cell lines, we further demonstrated that pRb inactivation leads to increased cyclin A expression, cdk2 activation and proliferation in antiestrogen arrested cells. These results demonstrate that antiestrogens do not inhibit cdk2 activity or proliferation of MCF-7 cells in the absence of pRb family function, and suggest that antiestrogen resistant breast cancer cells resulting from pRb pathway inactivation would be susceptible to therapies that target cdk2.
| S-EPMC2092387 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Metabolic remodeling is now widely regarded as a hallmark of cancer, but it is not clear whether individual metabolic strategies are frequently exploited by many tumours. Here we compare messenger RNA profiles of 1,454 metabolic enzymes across 1,981 tumours spanning 19 cancer types to identify enzymes that are consistently differentially expressed. Our meta-analysis recovers established targets of some of the most widely used chemotherapeutics, including dihydrofolate reductase, thymidylate synthase and ribonucleotide reductase, while also spotlighting new enzymes, such as the mitochondrial proline biosynthetic enzyme PYCR1. The highest scoring pathway is mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism and is centred on MTHFD2. MTHFD2 RNA and protein are markedly elevated in many cancers and correlated with poor survival in breast cancer. MTHFD2 is expressed in the developing embryo, but is absent in most healthy adult tissues, even those that are proliferating. Our study highlights the importance of mitochondrial compartmentalization of one-carbon metabolism in cancer and raises important therapeutic hypotheses.
| S-EPMC4106362 | biostudies-literature
Project description:One-carbon metabolism plays a central role in a broad array of metabolic processes required for the survival and growth of tumor cells. However, the molecular basis of how one-carbon metabolism may influence RNA methylation and tumorigenesis remains largely unknown. Here we show MTHFD2, a mitochondrial enzyme involved in one-carbon metabolism, contributes to the progression of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) via a novel epitranscriptomic mechanism that involves HIF-2α. We found that expression of MTHFD2 was significantly elevated in human RCC tissues, and MTHFD2 knockdown strongly reduced xenograft tumor growth. Mechanistically, using an unbiased methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (meRIP-Seq) approach, we found that MTHFD2 plays a critical role in controlling global N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation levels, including the m6A methylation of HIF-2α mRNA, which results in enhanced translation of HIF-2α. Enhanced HIF-2α translation, in turn, promotes the aerobic glycolysis, linking one-carbon metabolism to HIF-2α-dependent metabolic reprogramming through RNA methylation. Our findings also suggest that MTHFD2 and HIF-2α form a positive feedforward loop in RCC, promoting metabolic reprograming and tumor growth. Taken together, our results suggest that MTHFD2 links RNA methylation status to the metabolic state of tumor cells in RCC.
| S-EPMC8040069 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionMethylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 (MTHFD2), whose aberrant expression is common in cancers, has recently been identified as a potential regulator of immune response. However, its immune-related role in bladder cancer (BLCA) and its association with immunotherapy efficacy remain unclear.MethodsRNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was applied to analyze the immunological roles and prognostic value of MTHFD2 in pan-cancers. The association of MTHFD2 with several immunological features of tumor microenvironment (TME), including cancer-immunity cycle, immune cells infiltration, immune checkpoints expression, and T cell inflamed score was analyzed in TCGA-BLCA cohort. The predictors of cancer treatments effectiveness, including the expression and mutation of certain genes, molecular subtypes, and several signatures were evaluated as well. These results were validated by another independent cohort (GSE48075). Finally, the predictive value of MTHFD2 for TME and immunotherapy efficacy were validated using immunohistochemistry assay and RNA sequencing data from IMvigor210 cohort, respectively.ResultsMTHFD2 was found to be positively associated with several immunological features of an inflamed tumor microenvironment (TME) in various cancers and could predict BLCA patients' prognosis. In BLCA, high expression of MTHFD2 was observed to be positively related with the cancer-immunity cycle, the infiltration of several immune cells, and the expression of immunoregulators and T-cell inflamed scores, indicating a positive correlation with the inflamed TME. Moreover, patients with high MTHFD2 expression were more likely to be basal-like subtypes and respond to BLCA treatments, including immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and target therapy. The clinical data of the IMvigor210 cohort confirmed the higher response rates and better survival benefits of immunotherapy in high-MTHFD2-expression patients.ConclusionCollectively, high MTHFD2 predicts an inflamed TME, a basal-like subtype, and a better response to various therapeutic strategies, especially the ICB therapy, in bladder cancer.
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Project description:Background: Monocarboxylate transporter isoform 1 (MCT1) is an important molecule in mediating lactate transportation. Recent studies have shown an oncogenic role of MCT1 in cancer development. Methods: In this study, we aimed to investigate the expression and role of MCT1 in bladder cancer (BCa). MCT1 expression was detected in 124 BCa tissues and their clinicopathological significance was analyzed. We also used The Cancer Genome Atlas database to explore the prognostic association of MCT1 with BCa. Cell proliferation, migration and invasion assays were performed on BCa cells in which MCT1 was downregulated. The effect of MCT1 on BCa cell aerobic glycolysis, as well as its association with HIF-1?, was tested. Results: We found that high MCT1 expression correlated with lymph node and distant metastasis. Patients with high-MCT1 expression showed shorter overall survival than those with low-MCT1 expression. Knockdown of MCT1 inhibited BCa cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and affected expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition related proteins. Downregulation of MCT1 decreased lactate levels in cell medium, as well as HK2, GLUT1 and LDHB expression. In addition, MCT1 expression was partly dependent on HIF-1?. Conclusions: Taken together, our study has shown a prognostic role of MCT1 in BCa, and provided potential diagnostic and therapeutic options for BCa patients.
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Project description:The androgen receptor (AR) has been linked to bladder cancer (BCa) progression, but if this involves circular RNAs (circRNAs) remains unclear. Here, we find that AR alters the levels of circRNA-FNTA (circFNTA) to increase BCa cell invasion and chemo-resistance. Mechanistically, AR represses the RNA editing gene ADAR2 via direct binding to its 5' promoter region to increase circFNTA levels, which then sponges the microRNA miR-370-3p to increase the expression of its host gene FNTA. This AR-mediated ADAR2/circFNTA/miR-370-3p/FNTA pathway then activates KRAS signaling to alter BCa cell invasion and chemo-sensitivity to cisplatin. A clinical BCa sample survey shows that circFNTA expression is elevated in BCa tissues, and results from a BCa mouse model indicate that depletion of circFNTA leads to the suppression of BCa metastases and increased cisplatin chemo-sensitivity. Together, based on our results using multiple BCa cell lines and an in vivo mouse model we suggest that targeting this newly identified AR/ADAR2/circFNTA/miR-370-3p/FNTA/KRAS axis may lead to the development of therapies to suppress BCa metastasis and to increase its chemo-sensitivity.
| S-EPMC7132336 | biostudies-literature