Pyruvate carboxylase is critical for non–small-cell lung cancer proliferation
Katherine Sellers, … , Andrew N. Lane, Teresa W.-M. Fan
Katherine Sellers, … , Andrew N. Lane, Teresa W.-M. Fan
Published January 20, 2015
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2015;125(2):687-698. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI72873.
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Pyruvate carboxylase is critical for non–small-cell lung cancer proliferation

Abstract

Anabolic biosynthesis requires precursors supplied by the Krebs cycle, which in turn requires anaplerosis to replenish precursor intermediates. The major anaplerotic sources are pyruvate and glutamine, which require the activity of pyruvate carboxylase (PC) and glutaminase 1 (GLS1), respectively. Due to their rapid proliferation, cancer cells have increased anabolic and energy demands; however, different cancer cell types exhibit differential requirements for PC- and GLS-mediated pathways for anaplerosis and cell proliferation. Here, we infused patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with uniformly 13C-labeled glucose before tissue resection and determined that the cancerous tissues in these patients had enhanced PC activity. Freshly resected paired lung tissue slices cultured in 13C6-glucose or 13C5,15N2-glutamine tracers confirmed selective activation of PC over GLS in NSCLC. Compared with noncancerous tissues, PC expression was greatly enhanced in cancerous tissues, whereas GLS1 expression showed no trend. Moreover, immunohistochemical analysis of paired lung tissues showed PC overexpression in cancer cells rather than in stromal cells of tumor tissues. PC knockdown induced multinucleation, decreased cell proliferation and colony formation in human NSCLC cells, and reduced tumor growth in a mouse xenograft model. Growth inhibition was accompanied by perturbed Krebs cycle activity, inhibition of lipid and nucleotide biosynthesis, and altered glutathione homeostasis. These findings indicate that PC-mediated anaplerosis in early-stage NSCLC is required for tumor survival and proliferation.

Authors

Katherine Sellers, Matthew P. Fox, Michael Bousamra II, Stephen P. Slone, Richard M. Higashi, Donald M. Miller, Yali Wang, Jun Yan, Mariia O. Yuneva, Rahul Deshpande, Andrew N. Lane, Teresa W.-M. Fan

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Figure 4

PC suppression via shRNA inhibits proliferation and tumorigenicity of human NSCLC cell lines in vitro and in vivo.

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PC suppression via shRNA inhibits proliferation and tumorigenicity of hu...
Proliferation and colony-formation assays were initiated 1 week after transduction and selection with puromycin. A549 xenograft in NSG mice was performed 8 days after transduction. *P < 0.01, **P < 0.001, ***P < 0.0001, and ****P < 0.00001 by Student t test, assuming unequal variances. Error bars represent the SEM. (A) NSCLC cells lines were transduced with shPC55 or shEV. Proliferation assays (n = 6) revealed substantial growth inhibition induced by PC knockdown in all 5 cell lines after a relatively long latency period. (B) Colony-formation assays indicated that PC knockdown reduced the capacity of A549 and PC9 cells to form colonies in soft agar (n = 3). (C) Tumor xenografts from shPC55-transduced A549 cells showed a 2-fold slower growth rate than did control shEV tumors (P < 0.001 by the unpaired Welch version of the t test). Tumor size was calculated as πab/4, where a and b are the x,y diameters. Each point represents an average of 6 mice. The solid lines are the nonlinear regression fits to the equation: size = a + bt2, as described in the Methods. (D) The extent of PC knockdown in the mouse xenografts (n = 6) was lesser than that in cell cultures, leading to less attenuation of PC expression (30%–60% of control) and growth inhibition. In addition, PC expression in the excised tumors correlated with the individual growth rates, as determined by Pearson’s correlation coefficient.