Cited by 413Cancer, Hypoxia, and MetabolismAmino Acid Enzymes and MetabolismCancer Research and Treatments

Targeted inhibition of tumor-specific glutaminase diminishes cell-autonomous tumorigenesis

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Xiang, Yan, Stine, Zachary E., Xia, Jinsong, Lu, Yunqi, O’Connor, Roddy S., Altman, Brian J., Hsieh, Annie L., Gouw, Arvin M. +16 more·2015·Journal of Clinical Investigation

Abstract

Glutaminase (GLS), which converts glutamine to glutamate, plays a key role in cancer cell metabolism, growth, and proliferation. GLS is being explored as a cancer therapeutic target, but whether GLS inhibitors affect cancer cell-autonomous growth or the host microenvironment or have off-target effects is unknown. Here, we report that loss of one copy of Gls blunted tumor progression in an immune-competent MYC-mediated mouse model of hepatocellular carcinoma. Compared with results in untreated animals with MYC-induced hepatocellular carcinoma, administration of the GLS-specific inhibitor bis-2-(5-phenylacetamido-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)ethyl sulfide (BPTES) prolonged survival without any apparent toxicities. BPTES also inhibited growth of a MYC-dependent human B cell lymphoma cell line (P493) by blocking DNA replication, leading to cell death and fragmentation. In mice harboring P493 tumor xenografts, BPTES treatment inhibited tumor cell growth; however, P493 xenografts expressing a BPTES-resistant GLS mutant (GLS-K325A) or overexpressing GLS were not affected by BPTES treatment. Moreover, a customized Vivo-Morpholino that targets human GLS mRNA markedly inhibited P493 xenograft growth without affecting mouse Gls expression. Conversely, a Vivo-Morpholino directed at mouse Gls had no antitumor activity in vivo. Collectively, our studies demonstrate that GLS is required for tumorigenesis and support small molecule and genetic inhibition of GLS as potential approaches for targeting the tumor cell-autonomous dependence on GLS for cancer therapy.

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  • Inhibiting glutamine entry into the TCA cycle can blunt tumor progression in a MYC-driven liver cancer model and a MYC-inducible Burkitt lymphoma model.

    “Importantly, inhibiting glutamine entry into the TCA cycle can blunt tumor progression in a MYC-driven cancer model of liver cancer (Xiang et al., 2015; Yuneva et al., 2012) and a MYC-inducible Burkitt lymphoma model (Le et al., 2012; Xiang et al., 2015).”

    From Targeting Metabolism for Cancer Therapy (2017) · cites this paper as Xiang et al., 2015

  • Specific metabolic importance of glutamine in tumorigenesis and tumor growth has been reported.

    “Nevertheless, the specific metabolic importance of glutamine in tumorigenesis and tumor growth has also been reported194–196”

    From Glutamine reliance in cell metabolism (2020) · cites this paper as [195]

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  1. Chandel NS. Navigating Metabolism. Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 2014.

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Authors
Xiang, Y., Stine, Z. E., Xia, J., Lu, Y., O’Connor, R. S., Altman, B. J., Hsieh, A. L., Gouw, A. M., Thomas, A. G., Gao, P., Sun, L., Song, L., Yan, B., Slusher, B. S., Zhuo, J., Ooi, L. L., Lee, C. G. L., Mancuso, A., McCallion, A. S., Le, A., Milone, M. C., Rayport, S., Felsher, D. W., & Dang, C. V.
Affiliations
  • Abramson Cancer Center (US)
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
  • Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (CN)
  • KK Women's and Children's Hospital (SG)
  • National Cancer Centre Singapore (SG)
  • Singapore General Hospital (SG)
  • National University of Singapore (SG)
  • New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
Corresponding author
  • Xiang, Yan
  • Stine, Zachary E.
  • Dang, Chi V.
Venue
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Published
2015-04-27
Volume
125
Issue
6
Pages
2293-2306
ISSN
0021-9738 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2004574994
Cited by
409
References
61
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 50 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 16
FWCI
13.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Clinical Investigation (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Cancer Research Institute
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (81372148)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH117128)
  • National Cancer Institute (R01CA057341, F32CA174148, P30 CA16620, R01CA051497, P30CA016520)
  • Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Amino Acid Enzymes and Metabolism
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Cancer Research and Treatments
Keywords
glutaminase, BPTES, hepatocellular carcinoma, B-cell lymphoma, cancer metabolism, glutamine metabolism, cancer therapy, morpholino antisense, DNA replication inhibition
MeSH terms
Animals, Cell Transformation, Neoplastic, Glutaminase, Carcinoma, Hepatocellular, Humans, Liver Neoplasms, Experimental, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mice, Transgenic, Neoplasm Transplantation, Sulfides, Thiadiazoles, Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Amino Acid Substitution, Mutation, Missense, Mice, Heterografts

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