Tumor reliance on cytosolic versus mitochondrial one-carbon flux depends on folate availability
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE153023 | GEO | 2020/06/24
REPOSITORIES: GEO
Similar Datasets
Project description:Tumor reliance on cytosolic versus mitochondrial one-carbon flux depends on folate availability
| PRJNA641374 | ENA
Project description:One-carbon (1C) units for purine and thymidine synthesis can be generated from serine by cytosolic or mitochondrial folate metabolism. The mitochondrial 1C pathway is consistently overexpressed in cancer. Here, we show that most but not all proliferating mammalian cell lines use the mitochondrial pathway as the default for making 1C units. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-mediated mitochondrial pathway knockout activates cytosolic 1C-unit production. This reversal in cytosolic flux is triggered by depletion of a single metabolite, 10-formyl-tetrahydrofolate (10-formyl-THF), and enables rapid cell growth in nutrient-replete conditions. Loss of the mitochondrial pathway, however, renders cells dependent on extracellular serine to make 1C units and on extracellular glycine to make glutathione. HCT-116 colon cancer xenografts lacking mitochondrial 1C pathway activity generate the 1C units required for growth by cytosolic serine catabolism. Loss of both pathways precludes xenograft formation. Thus, either mitochondrial or cytosolic 1C metabolism can support tumorigenesis, with the mitochondrial pathway required in nutrient-poor conditions.
| S-EPMC4909566 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Mammalian folate metabolism is comprised of cytosolic and mitochondrial pathways with nearly identical core reactions, yet the functional advantages of such an organization are not well understood. Using genome-editing and biochemical approaches, we find that ablating folate metabolism in the mitochondria of mammalian cell lines results in folate degradation in the cytosol. Mechanistically, we show that QDPR, an enzyme in tetrahydrobiopterin metabolism, moonlights to repair oxidative damage to tetrahydrofolate (THF). This repair capacity is overwhelmed when cytosolic THF hyperaccumulates in the absence of mitochondrially produced formate, leading to THF degradation. Unexpectedly, we also find that the classic antifolate methotrexate, by inhibiting its well-known target DHFR, causes even more extensive folate degradation in nearly all tested cancer cell lines. These findings shed light on design features of folate metabolism, provide a biochemical basis for clinically observed folate deficiency in QDPR-deficient patients, and reveal a hitherto unknown and unexplored cellular effect of methotrexate.
| S-EPMC6568313 | biostudies-literature
Project description:What is known is that methionine-dependency is a feature of some cancers. So far, it was attributed to mutations in genes involved in the methionine de novo or salvage pathways. What is new is that in this work we propose that methionine dependency stems from an altered cellular metabolism. We provide evidence that in U251 glioblastoma cell line, only cancer stem cells -isolated as tumor spheres in non adherent conditions- are methionine dependent and not monolayer cells grown in adherent conditions. Transcriptome wide-sequencing reveals that several genes involved in cytosolic folate cycle are downregulated whereas some transcripts of genes involved in mitochondrial folate cycle are upregulated. Genome wide DNA methylation does not account for these changes in gene expression. Mass spectrometry measurements confirm that tumor spheres display low cytosolic folate cycle unable to produce enough 5-methyltetrahydrofolate to remethylate homocystein to methionine. This decreased 5-methyltetrahydrofolate bioavailability is presumably due to a reprogrammed mitochondrial folate cycle which instead of synthesizing formate, intended to fuel the cytosolic folate cycle, oxidizes the formyl group to CO2 with the attendant reduction of NADP+ to NADPH and release of tetrahydrofolate. The originality of this work resides in that it replaces methionine deprivation as a useful nutritional strategy in cancer growth control since cancer stem cells are much more tumoregenic than their non stem-like counterparts. Second, it reveals that the primary default responsible of the reprogrammation of folate metabolism originates in the mitochondria. Thus, mitochondrial enzymes could be novel and more promising anticancer targets than dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), the current target of drug therapy linked with folate metabolism.
2019-07-01 | GSE117448 | GEO
Project description:we report that U251 glioblastoma tumor spheres exhibit low cytosolic folate cycle and a reprogrammmed mitochondrial folate cycle that is presumably oriented towards oxidizing the formyl group to CO2 with the production of TetraHydroFolate and release of NADPH instead of synthesizing formate
2019-07-01 | GSE117543 | GEO
Project description:Reprogramming of cellular metabolism plays a central role in fuelling malignant transformation, and AMPK as well as the PGC-1α/ERRα axis are key regulators of this process. Intersection of gene expression and binding event datasets in breast cancer cells shows that activation of AMPK significantly increases the expression of PGC-1α/ERRα and promotes the binding of ERRα to its cognate sites. Unexpectedly, the data also reveal that ERRα, in concert with PGC-1α, negatively regulates the expression of several one-carbon metabolism genes resulting in substantial perturbations in purine biosynthesis. This PGC-1α/ERRα-mediated repression of one-carbon metabolism promotes the sensitivity of breast cancer cells and tumors to the anti-folate drug methotrexate. These data implicate the PGC-1α/ERRα axis as a core regulatory node of folate cycle metabolism and further suggest that activators of AMPK could be used to modulate this pathway in cancer. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression following AMPK activation by AICAR in BT474 breast cancer cells.
2016-02-02 | GSE75876 | GEO
Project description:Reprogramming of cellular metabolism plays a central role in fuelling malignant transformation, and AMPK as well as the PGC-1α/ERRα axis are key regulators of this process. Intersection of gene expression and binding event datasets in breast cancer cells shows that activation of AMPK significantly increases the expression of PGC-1α/ERRα and promotes the binding of ERRα to its cognate sites. Unexpectedly, the data also reveal that ERRα, in concert with PGC-1α, negatively regulates the expression of several one-carbon metabolism genes resulting in substantial perturbations in purine biosynthesis. This PGC-1α/ERRα-mediated repression of one-carbon metabolism promotes the sensitivity of breast cancer cells and tumors to the anti-folate drug methotrexate. These data implicate the PGC-1α/ERRα axis as a core regulatory node of folate cycle metabolism and further suggest that activators of AMPK could be used to modulate this pathway in cancer. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression following AMPK activation by AICAR in BT474 breast cancer cells.
2016-02-02 | GSE75727 | GEO
Project description:Progression of primary cancer to metastatic disease is the most common cause of death in cancer patients with minimal treatment options available. Canonical drugs mainly target the proliferative capacity of cancer cells, which often leaves slow-proliferating, persistent cancer cells unaffected. Thus, we aimed to identify metabolic determinants that enable cell plasticity and foster treatment resistance and tumor escape. Using a panel of anti-cancer drugs, we uncovered that antifolates, despite inducing strong growth arrest, did not impact the cancer cell’s motility potential, indicating that nucleotide synthesis is dispensable for cell motility. Prolonged treatment even selected for more motile cancer subpopulations. We found that cytosolic inhibition of DHFR by MTX only abrogates cytosolic folate cycle, while mitochondrial one-carbon cycle remains highly active. Despite a decreased cellular demand for biomass production, de novo serine synthesis and formate overflow are increased, suggesting that mitochondria provide a protective environment that allows serine catabolism to support cellular motility during nucleotide synthesis inhibition. Enhanced motility of growth-arrested cells was reduced by inhibition of PHGDH-dependent de novo serine synthesis and genetic silencing of mitochondrial one-carbon cycle. In vivo targeting of mitochondrial one-carbon cycle and formate overflow strongly and significantly reduced lung metastasis formation in an orthotopic breast cancer model. In summary, we identified mitochondrial serine catabolism as a targetable, growth-independent metabolic vulnerability to limit metastatic progression.
2022-06-09 | PXD027175 | Pride
Project description:Drosha-dependent canonical microRNAs (miRNAs) play a crucial role in the biological functions and development of cancer. However, the effects of Drosha-independent non-canonical miRNAs remain poorly understood. In our previous work, we found a set of aberrant miRNAs, including some upregulated miRNAs, called Drosha-independent noncanonical miRNAs, in Drosha-knockdown gastric cancer (GC) cells. Surprisingly, Drosha-silenced GC cells still retained strong malignant properties (e.g., proliferation ability and cancer stem cell (CSC) characteristics), indicating that aberrantly upregulated non-canonical miRNAs may play an important role in the maintenance of the malignant properties in GC cells that express low Drosha levels. Here, we report that miR-6778-5p, a noncanonical miRNA, acts as a crucial regulator for maintenance of CSC stemness in Drosha-silenced GC cells. MiR-6778-5p belongs to the 5'-tail mirtron type of non-canonical miRNAs and is transcript splice-derived from intron 5 of SHMT1 (coding cytoplasmic serine hydroxymethyltransferase). It positively regulates expression of its host gene, SHMT1, via targeting YWHAE in Drosha-knockdown GC cells. Similar to its family member SHMT2, SHMT1 plays a crucial role in folate-dependent serine/glycine inter-conversion in one-carbon metabolism. In Drosha wild type GC cells, SHMT2 mediates a mitochondrial-carbon metabolic pathway, which is a major pathway of one-carbon metabolism in normal cells and most cancer cells. However, in Drosha-silenced or Drosha low-expressing GC cells, miR-6778-5p positively regulates SHMT1, instead of SHMT2, thus mediating a compensatory activation of cytoplasmic carbon metabolism that plays an essential role in the maintenance of CSCs in gastric cancer (GCSCs). Drosha wild type GCSCs with SHMT2 are sensitive to 5-fluorouracil; however, Drosha low-expressing GCSCs with SHMT1 are 5-FU-resistant. The loss of miR-6778-5p or SHMT1 notably mitigates GCSC sphere formation and increases sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil in Drosha-knockdown gastric cancer cells. Thus, our study reveals a novel function of Drosha-independent noncanonical miRNAs in maintaining the stemness of GCSCs.
| S-EPMC7474538 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The translation process, central to life, is tightly connected to the one-carbon (1-C) metabolism via a plethora of macromolecule modifications and specific effectors. Using manual genome annotations and putting together a variety of experimental studies, we explore here the possible reasons of this critical interaction, likely to have originated during the earliest steps of the birth of the first cells. Methionine, S-adenosylmethionine and tetrahydrofolate dominate this interaction. Yet, 1-C metabolism is unlikely to be a simple frozen accident of primaeval conditions. Reactive 1-C species (ROCS) are buffered by the translation machinery in a way tightly associated with the metabolism of iron-sulfur clusters, zinc and potassium availability, possibly coupling carbon metabolism to nitrogen metabolism. In this process, the highly modified position 34 of tRNA molecules plays a critical role. Overall, this metabolic integration may serve both as a protection against the deleterious formation of excess carbon under various growth transitions or environmental unbalanced conditions and as a regulator of zinc homeostasis, while regulating input of prosthetic groups into nascent proteins. This knowledge should be taken into account in metabolic engineering.
| S-EPMC7264889 | biostudies-literature