Cited by 499Cancer, Hypoxia, and MetabolismMetabolism, Diabetes, and CancerCancer, Lipids, and Metabolism

Pyruvate carboxylase is critical for non–small-cell lung cancer proliferation

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Sellers, Katherine, Fox, Matthew P., Bousamra, Michael, Slone, Stephen P., Higashi, Richard M., Miller, Donald M., Wang, Yali, Yan, Jun +4 more·2015·Journal of Clinical Investigation

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.

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  • Tracing glucose-derived carbons in human patients and mouse models of glioblastoma and NSCLC reveals that in these contexts the principal source for TCA cycle intermediates is glucose, not glutamine.

    “In fact, tracing the fate of glucose-derived carbons in human patients and in mouse models of glioblastoma and non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) reveals that at least in these tumorigenic contexts, the principal source for the TCA cycle intermediates is not glutamine, but glucose (Maher et al., 2012; Marin-Valencia et al., 2012; Sellers et al., 2015).”

    From The emerging hallmarks of cancer metabolism (2016) · cites this paper as Sellers et al., 2015

  • PDC and PC both catalyze the flux of pyruvate into the TCA cycle, but their metabolic roles do not appear to be interchangeable.

    “Although PDC and PC both catalyze the flux of pyruvate into the TCA cycle, their enzymatic activities can be distinguished by stable isotope tracing26,27, and their metabolic roles do not appear to be interchangeable.”
  • Many cancers favor PC-mediated anaplerosis.

    “Many cancers favor PC-mediated anaplerosis, although the factors that dictate the choice for pyruvate flux between PC and PDC are little studied.27,29,30”

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Warburg O. Versuche an überlebendem Car- cinomgewebe (Methoden). Biochem Zeitschr. 1923;142:317-333.
  2. Marin-Valencia I, et al. Analysis of tumor metabolism reveals mitochondrial glucose oxidation in genetically diverse human glioblas- tomas in the mouse brain in vivo. Cell Metab. 2012;15(6):827-837.
  3. Fan TWM, Lane AN, Higashi RM, eds. The Hand- book of Metabolomics. New York, New York, USA: Humana Press; 2012.
  4. Fan TW, Lane AN, Higashi M, Bousamra M 2nd, Kloecker G, Miller DM. Erlotinib-sensi- tive and resistant lung tumors show radically different metabolic profiles. Exp Molec Pathol. 2009;87:83-86.
  5. de Graaf RA, Rothman DL, Behar KL. State of the art direct 13C and indirect 1H-[13C] NMR spec- troscopy in vivo. A practical guide. NMR Biomed. 2011;24(8):958-972.
  6. Maher EA, et al. Metabolism of U-13C glucose in human brain tumors in vivo. NMR Biomed. 2012;25(11):1234-1244.

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Authors
Sellers, K., Fox, M. P., Bousamra, M., Slone, S. P., Higashi, R. M., Miller, D. M., Wang, Y., Yan, J., Yuneva, M. O., Deshpande, R., Lane, A. N., & Fan, T. W.-M.
Affiliations
  • University of Louisville (US)
  • National Institute for Medical Research (GB)
  • University of Kentucky (US)
Corresponding author
Lane, Andrew N.
Venue
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Published
2015-01-20
Volume
125
Issue
2
Pages
687-698
ISSN
0021-9738 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2041729369
Cited by
497
References
44
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 53 · 2021: 63 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 53 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 17
FWCI
17.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Clinical Investigation (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UKnowledge (University of Kentucky) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (0447479, 0132295)
  • University of Louisville (20044)
  • Francis Crick Institute (10223)
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Cancer Institute (P01CA163223, R01CA118434, R01CA101199, P30CA177558)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U24DK097215)
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES022191)
  • National Center for Research Resources (P20RR018733)
  • Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Metabolism, Diabetes, and Cancer
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Lipids, and Metabolism
Keywords
pyruvate carboxylase, non-small cell lung cancer, anaplerosis, GLS1, TCA cycle, tumor cell proliferation, 13C-labeled glucose, glutamine metabolism, glutathione homeostasis, lipogenesis, nucleotide synthesis, multinucleation, tumor growth
MeSH terms
Animals, Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Citric Acid Cycle, Female, Glucose, Glutathione, Humans, Lung Neoplasms, Male, Neoplasm Proteins, Nucleotides, Pyruvate Carboxylase, Radioactive Tracers, Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Cell Proliferation, Lipid Metabolism, Mice, HEK293 Cells

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