Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102, USA.
J Biol Chem. 2012 Mar 30;287(14):11070-81. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M111.302547. Epub 2012 Jan 24.
Cancer cells universally increase glucose and glutamine consumption, leading to the altered metabolic state known as the Warburg effect; one metabolic pathway, highly dependent on glucose and glutamine, is the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway. Increased flux through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway leads to increases in the post-translational addition of O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) to various nuclear and cytosolic proteins. A number of these target proteins are implicated in cancer, and recently, O-GlcNAcylation was shown to play a role in breast cancer; however, O-GlcNAcylation in other cancers remains poorly defined. Here, we show that O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) is overexpressed in prostate cancer compared with normal prostate epithelium and that OGT protein and O-GlcNAc levels are elevated in prostate carcinoma cell lines. Reducing O-GlcNAcylation in PC3-ML cells was associated with reduced expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, and VEGF, resulting in inhibition of invasion and angiogenesis. OGT-mediated regulation of invasion and angiogenesis was dependent upon regulation of the oncogenic transcription factor FoxM1, a key regulator of invasion and angiogenesis, as reducing OGT expression led to increased FoxM1 protein degradation. Conversely, overexpression of a degradation-resistant FoxM1 mutant abrogated OGT RNAi-mediated effects on invasion, MMP levels, angiogenesis, and VEGF expression. Using a mouse model of metastasis, we found that reduction of OGT expression blocked bone metastasis. Altogether, these data suggest that as prostate cancer cells alter glucose and glutamine levels, O-GlcNAc modifications and OGT levels become elevated and are required for regulation of malignant properties, implicating OGT as a novel therapeutic target in the treatment of cancer.
癌细胞普遍增加葡萄糖和谷氨酰胺的消耗,导致代谢状态发生改变,即众所周知的沃伯格效应;其中一个高度依赖葡萄糖和谷氨酰胺的代谢途径是己糖胺生物合成途径。己糖胺生物合成途径的通量增加会导致各种核和细胞质蛋白的 O-链接 β-N-乙酰氨基葡萄糖(O-GlcNAc)的翻译后添加增加。许多这些靶蛋白与癌症有关,最近,O-GlcNAcylation 被证明在乳腺癌中起作用;然而,其他癌症中的 O-GlcNAcylation 仍然定义不明确。在这里,我们表明与正常前列腺上皮相比,前列腺癌中 O-GlcNAc 转移酶(OGT)表达过度,并且前列腺癌细胞系中 OGT 蛋白和 O-GlcNAc 水平升高。在 PC3-ML 细胞中降低 O-GlcNAcylation 与基质金属蛋白酶(MMP)-2、MMP-9 和 VEGF 的表达降低有关,导致侵袭和血管生成受到抑制。OGT 介导的侵袭和血管生成的调节依赖于致癌转录因子 FoxM1 的调节,FoxM1 是侵袭和血管生成的关键调节因子,因为降低 OGT 表达会导致 FoxM1 蛋白降解增加。相反,过表达降解抗性 FoxM1 突变体会消除 OGT RNAi 对侵袭、MMP 水平、血管生成和 VEGF 表达的影响。使用转移的小鼠模型,我们发现降低 OGT 表达可阻断骨转移。总之,这些数据表明,随着前列腺癌细胞改变葡萄糖和谷氨酰胺水平,O-GlcNAc 修饰和 OGT 水平升高,并需要调节恶性特性,这表明 OGT 是治疗癌症的一种新的治疗靶标。