Targeted Cancer Therapeutics: Biosynthetic and Energetic Pathways Characterized by Metabolomics and the Interplay with Key Cancer Regulatory Factors
TL;DR: This review will highlight particular pathways, including glycolysis, nucleotide biosynthesis, lipid metabolism, and bioenergetics with an eye towards selected metabolic targets that may provide a novel approach to therapeutic development.
Abstract: Reprogramming of energy metabolism has recently been added to the list of hallmarks that define cancer. Cellular metabolism plays a central role in cancer initiation and progression to metastatic disease. Genotypic and phenotypic metabolic alterations are seen throughout tumourigenesis, allowing cancer cells to sustain increased rates of proliferation. Furthermore, this shift fuels necessary substrates for nucleotide, protein, and lipid synthesis to support cell growth. Beyond the 'Warburg effect', the widely observed increase in the glycolytic processing of glucose in cancer cells, numerous other metabolic changes have been characterized in cancer. Metabolomics provides a valuable platform for the investigation of the metabolic perturbations that occur in different disease states using a systems biology approach to determine metabolic profiles of biological samples. As cell metabolism is a complex network of interdependent pathways, local alterations will have an impact on overall tumor metabolism. In this review, we will highlight particular pathways, including glycolysis, nucleotide biosynthesis, lipid metabolism, and bioenergetics with an eye towards selected metabolic targets that may provide a novel approach to therapeutic development. Specific regulatory factors, including Myc, p53, HIF-1 and mTOR are briefly highlighted, as well as the key signaling pathways that can affect cellular metabolism. To demonstrate the powerful utility of high-throughput metabolite profiling techniques, we present a practical example of the metabolomic profiling of metastatic cells derived from a lung cancer metastasis model.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: Induction of the melanogenic pathway leads to robust upregulation of HIF-1-dependent and independent pathways in cultured melanoma cells, suggesting a key role for melanogenesis in regulation of cellular metabolism.
177 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the emerging trends in NMR-based metabolomics and NMR's continuing role in the field with an emphasis on recent and ongoing research from our laboratory.
167 citations
TL;DR: It is proposed that inhibition of melanogenesis in advanced melanotic melanoma represents a realistic adjuvant strategy to enhance immuno-, radio-, and chemotherapy.
Abstract: Melanin pigment plays a critical role in the protection against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation and other environmental stressors. It is produced by the enzymatic transformation of L-tyrosine to dopaquinone and subsequent chemical and biochemical reactions resulting in the formation of various 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA) and 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI) oligomers—main constituents of eumelanin, and benzothiazine and benzothiazole units of pheomelanin. The biosynthesis of melanin is regulated by sun exposure and by many hormonal factors at the tissue, cellular, and subcellular levels. While the presence of melanin protects against the development of skin cancers including cutaneous melanoma, its presence may be necessary for the malignant transformation of melanocytes. This shows a complex role of melanogenesis in melanoma development defined by chemical properties of melanin and the nature of generating pathways such as eu- and pheomelanogenesis. While eumelanin is believed to provide radioprotection and photoprotection by acting as an efficient antioxidant and sunscreen, pheomelanin, being less photostable, can generate mutagenic environment after exposure to the short-wavelength UVR. Melanogenesis by itself and its highly reactive intermediates show cytotoxic, genotoxic, and mutagenic activities, and it can stimulate glycolysis and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) activation, which, combined with their immunosuppressive effects, can lead to melanoma progression and resistance to immunotherapy. On the other hand, melanogenesis-related proteins can be a target for immunotherapy. Interestingly, clinicopathological analyses on advanced melanomas have shown a negative correlation between tumor pigmentation and diseases outcome as defined by overall survival and disease-free time. This indicates a “Yin and Yang” role for melanin and active melanogenesis in melanoma development, progression, and therapy. Furthermore, based on the clinical, experimental data and diverse effects of melanogenesis, we propose that inhibition of melanogenesis in advanced melanotic melanoma represents a realistic adjuvant strategy to enhance immuno-, radio-, and chemotherapy.
59 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the TK target c-MYC plays a role in transcriptional activation and subsequent expression of LIG3 and PARP1 and contributes to the increased error-prone repair observed in TK-activated leukemias.
Abstract: Leukemias expressing the constitutively activated tyrosine kinases (TK) BCR-ABL1 and FLT3/ITD activate signaling pathways that increase genomic instability through generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA double-strand breaks (DSB), and error-prone repair. The nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway is a major pathway for DSB repair and is highly aberrant in TK-activated leukemias; an alternative form of NHEJ (ALT-NHEJ) predominates, evidenced by increased expression of DNA ligase IIIα (LIG3) and PARP1, increased frequency of large genomic deletions, and repair using DNA sequence microhomologies. This study, for the first time, demonstrates that the TK target c-MYC plays a role in transcriptional activation and subsequent expression of LIG3 and PARP1 and contributes to the increased error-prone repair observed in TK-activated leukemias. c-MYC negatively regulates microRNAs miR-150 and miR-22, which demonstrate an inverse correlation with LIG3 and PARP1 expression in primary and cultured leukemia cells and chronic myelogenous leukemia human patient samples. Notably, inhibition of c-MYC and overexpression of miR-150 and -22 decreases ALT-NHEJ activity. Thus, BCR-ABL1 or FLT3/ITD induces c-MYC expression, leading to genomic instability via augmented expression of ALT-NHEJ repair factors that generate repair errors. Implications: In the context of TK-activated leukemias, c-MYC contributes to aberrant DNA repair through downstream targets LIG3 and PARP1, which represent viable and attractive therapeutic targets. Mol Cancer Res; 13(4); 699–712. ©2015 AACR.
54 citations
Cites background from "Targeted Cancer Therapeutics: Biosy..."
...While elevated expression of c-MYC occurs frequently in human cancers and is associated with tumor progression and poor clinical outcome (36), the effect of high levels of c-MYC on global gene regulation is poorly understood....
[...]
TL;DR: A preliminary study of TP-related cytotoxicity on A549 cells using proteomics tools may improve the current understanding of the anti-tumor effects of TP on lung cancer cells and may reveal candidate proteins as potential targets for the treatment of lung cancer.
Abstract: Background/aims Triptolide (TP) is a diterpenoid triepoxide extracted from the traditional Chinese medical herb Tripterygium wilfordii that exerts prominent broad-spectrum anticancer activity to repress proliferation and induce cancer cell apoptosis through various molecular pathways. We previously observed that TP inhibits the progression of A549 cells and pancreatic cancer cells (PNCA-1) in vitro. However, the complex molecular mechanism underlying the anticancer activity of TP is not well understood. Methods To explore the molecular mechanisms by which TP induces lung cancer cell apoptosis, we investigated changes in the protein profile of A549 cells treated with TP using a proteomics approach (iTRAQ [isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation] combined with NanoLC-MS/MS [nano liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry]). Changes in the profiles of the expressed proteins were analyzed using the bioinformatics tools OmicsBean and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and were verified using western blotting. Apoptosis and cell cycle effects were analyzed using flow cytometry. Results TP induced apoptosis in A549 cells and blocked A549 cells at the G2/M phase. Using iTRAQ technology, we observed 312 differentially expressed proteins associated in networks and implicated in different KEGG pathways. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed the overviews of dysregulated proteins in the biological process (BP), cell component (CC), and molecular function (MF) categories. Moreover, some candidate proteins involved in PARP1/AIF and nuclear Akt signaling pathways or metastasis processes were validated by western blotting. Conclusion TP exerted anti-tumor activity on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells by dysregulating tumor-related protein expression. Herein, we provide a preliminary study of TP-related cytotoxicity on A549 cells using proteomics tools. These findings may improve the current understanding of the anti-tumor effects of TP on lung cancer cells and may reveal candidate proteins as potential targets for the treatment of lung cancer.
26 citations