Dysregulated lipid metabolism in cancer

Fatostatin displays high antitumor activity in prostate cancer by blocking SREBP-regulated metabolic pathways and androgen receptor signaling

Current research links aberrant lipogenesis and cholesterogenesis with prostate cancer development and progression. Sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBP; SREBP-1 and SREBP-2) are key transcription factors controlling lipogenesis and cholesterogenesis via the regulation of genes related to fatty acid and cholesterol biosynthesis. Overexpression of SREBPs has been reported to be significantly associated with aggressive pathologic features in human prostate cancer. Our previous results showed that SREBP-1 promoted prostate cancer growth and castration resistance through induction of lipogenesis and androgen receptor (AR) activity. In the present study, we evaluated the anti-prostate tumor activity of a novel SREBP inhibitor, fatostatin. We found that fatostatin suppressed cell proliferation and anchorage-independent colony formation in both androgen-responsive LNCaP and androgen-insensitive C4-2B prostate cancer cells. Fatostatin also reduced in vitro invasion and migration in both the cell lines. Further, fatostatin caused G2-M cell-cycle arrest and induced apoptosis by increasing caspase-3/7 activity and the cleavages of caspase-3 and PARP. The in vivo animal results demonstrated that fatostatin significantly inhibited subcutaneous C4-2B tumor growth and markedly decreased serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level compared with the control group. The in vitro and in vivo effects of fatostatin treatment were due to blockade of SREBP-regulated metabolic pathways and the AR signaling network. Our findings identify SREBP inhibition as a potential new therapeutic approach for the treatment of prostate cancer.

MiR-205 modulates abnormal lipid metabolism of hepatoma cells via targeting acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 1 (ACSL1) mRNA

The abnormal lipid metabolism is considered as a hallmarker of tumorigenesis. Liver is the central organ for metabolic homeostasis. Hence, the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) always exhibits alterations of metabolism. MicroRNAs emerge as key post-transcriptional modulators of gene expression in physiologic and pathologic states. Here, we aim to explore the mechanism of abnormal lipid metabolism of hepatoma cells. Previously, our group reported that miR-205 as a tumor suppressor was down-regulated in HCC. Therefore, we supposed that miR-205 might be involved in the event. Interestingly, in this study we uncover that miR-205 deregulates lipid metabolism in HCC through targeting acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 1 (ACSL1) mRNA, which is an important and abundant lipid metabolism enzyme in liver. We identified that miR-205 was able to down-regulate ACSL1 via targeting its 3'UTR in the cells. Oil red O staining showed that miR-205 disordered the lipogenesis in hepatoma cells and anti-miR-205 resulted in the accumulation of triglyceride in the cells depending on ACSL1. Moreover, we validated that the low levels of miR-205 were negatively related to high levels of ACSL1 in clinical HCC tissues. The expression levels of ACSL1 and its metabolite triglyceride levels were remarkably increased in hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx)-induced liver cancer tissues from the HBx transgenic mice model. Thus, we conclude that miR-205-targeted ACSL1 may contribute to the abnormal lipid metabolism of liver cancer. Our finding provides new insights into the dysregulation of lipid metabolism in HCC mediated by miR-205 targeting ACSL1 mRNA.

Mitochondrial energetic and AKT status mediate metabolic effects and apoptosis of metformin in human leukemic cells

Previous reports demonstrate that metformin, an anti-diabetic drug, can decrease the risk of cancer and inhibit cancer cell growth. However, its mechanism in cancer cells is still unknown. Metformin significantly blocks cell cycle and inhibits cell proliferation and colony formation of leukemic cells. However, the apoptotic response to metformin varies. Furthermore, daily treatment with metformin induces apoptosis and reduces tumor growth in vivo. While metformin induces early and transient activation of AMPK, inhibition of AMPKα1/2 does not abrogate anti-proliferative or pro-apoptotic effects of metformin. Metformin decreases electron transport chain complex I activity, oxygen consumption and mitochondrial ATP synthesis, while stimulating glycolysis for ATP and lactate production, pentose phosphate pathway for purine biosynthesis, fatty acid metabolism, as well as anaplerotic and mitochondrial gene expression. Importantly, leukemic cells with high basal AKT phosphorylation, glucose consumption or glycolysis exhibit a markedly reduced induction of the Pasteur effect in response to metformin and are resistant to metformin-induced apoptosis. Accordingly, glucose starvation or treatment with deoxyglucose or an AKT inhibitor induces sensitivity to metformin. Overall, metformin elicits reprogramming of intermediary metabolism leading to inhibition of cell proliferation in all leukemic cells and apoptosis only in leukemic cells responding to metformin with AKT phosphorylation and a strong Pasteur effect.

Differentiation of cancer cells in two-dimensional and three-dimensional breast cancer models by Raman spectroscopy

We demonstrate the first application of Raman spectroscopy in diagnosing nonmalignant, premalignant, malignant, and metastatic stages of breast cancer in a three-dimensional (3-D) cell culture model that closely mimics an in vivo environment. Comprehensive study comparing classification in two-dimensional (2-D) and 3-D cell models was performed using statistical methods composed of principal component analysis for exploratory analysis and outlier removal, partial least squares discriminant analysis, and elastic net regularized regression for classification. Our results show that Raman spectroscopy with an appropriate classification tool has excellent resolution to discriminate the four stages of breast cancer progression, with a near 100% accuracy for both 2-D and 3-D cell models. The diversity in chemical groups related to nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids, among other chemicals, were identified by appropriate peaks in the Raman spectra that correspond to the correct classification of the different stages of tumorigenesis model comprising of MCF10A, MCF10AneoT, MCF10CA1h, and MCF10CA1a cell lines. An explicit relationship between wavenumber and the stages of cancer progression was identified by the elastic net variable selection.

Rapid chromatographic method to decipher distinct alterations in lipid classes in NAFLD/NASH

AIM: To establish a simple method to quantify lipid classes in liver diseases and to decipher the lipid profile in p62/IMP2-2/IGF2BP2-2 transgenic mice.

METHODS: Liver-specific overexpression of the insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein p62/IMP2-2/IGF2BP2-2 was used as a model for steatosis. Steatohepatitis was induced by feeding a methionine-choline deficient diet. Steatosis was assessed histologically. For thin layer chromatographic analysis, lipids were extracted from freeze-dried tissues by hexane/2-propanol, dried, redissolved, and chromatographically separated by a two-solvent system. Dilution series of lipid standards were chromatographed, detected, and quantified. The detection was performed by either 2’,7’-dichlorofluoresceine or a sulfuric acid/ethanol mixture.

RESULTS: Histological analyses confirmed steatosis and steatohepatitis development. The extraction, chromatographic, and detection method showed high inter-assay reproducibility and allowed quantification of the different lipid classes. The analyses confirmed an increase of triglycerides and phosphatidylethanolamine and a decrease in phosphatidylcholine in the methionine-choline deficient diet. The method was used for the first time to asses the lipid classes induced in the p62-overexpressing mouse model and showed a significant increase in all detected lipid species with a prominent increase of triglycerides by 2-fold. Interestingly, the ratio of phosphatidylcholine to phosphatidylethanolamine was decreased, as previously suggested as a marker in the progression from steatosis to steatohepatitis.

CONCLUSION: The thin layer chromatography analysis allows a reliable quantification of lipid classes and provides detailed insight into the lipogenic effect of p62.

Detection and Discrimination of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer by Multimodal Imaging

Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) belongs to the most frequent human neoplasms. Its exposed location facilitates a fast ambulant treatment. However, in the clinical practice far more lesions are removed than necessary, due to the lack of an efficient pre-operational examination procedure: Standard imaging methods often do not provide a sufficient spatial resolution. The demand for an efficient in vivo imaging technique might be met in the near future by non-linear microscopy. As a first step towards this goal, the appearance of NMSC in various microspectroscopic modalities has to be defined and approaches have to be derived to distinguish healthy skin from NMSC using non-linear optical microscopy. Therefore, in this contribution the appearance of ex vivo NMSC in a combination of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), second harmonic generation (SHG) and two photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) imaging—referred as multimodal imaging—is described. Analogous to H&E staining, an overview of the distinct appearances and features of basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma in the complementary modalities is derived, and is expected to boost in vivo studies of this promising technological approach.

Pro-apoptotic miRNA-128-2 modulates ABCA1, ABCG1 and RXRα expression and cholesterol homeostasis. Cell Death Dis. 2013;4:e780. [PMID: 23990020 PMCID: PMC3763462 DOI: 10.1038/cddis.2013.301]

Aberrant regulation of cholesterol homeostasis is associated with obesity as well as multiple types of cancer. However, the mechanism behind these is largely missing. Here, we show that microRNA (miRNA)-128-2 is not only a pro-apoptotic microRNA but it also alters the expression of genes involved in cellular cholesterol homeostasis. Cholesterol efflux via ATP-binding cassette transporters (ABCA1 and ABCG1) is a mechanism for cells to eliminate excess cholesterol and prevent cellular cholesterol accumulation. The regulation of these pathways is complex with transcriptional regulation by sterol-regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) and liver X receptor/retinoid X receptor (RXR) transcription factors but poorly understood at the post-transcriptional levels. MiR-128-2 increases the expression of SREBP2 and decreases the expression of SREBP1 in HepG2, MCF7 and HEK293T cells independent of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) status. MiR-128-2 inhibits the expression of ABCA1, ABCG1 and RXRα directly through a miR-128-2-binding site within their respective 3'untranslated regions. The administration of miR-128-2 leads to decline in the protein and mRNA levels of ABCA1, ABCG1 and RXRα. Conversely, anti-miRNA treatment leads to increased ABCA1, ABCG1 and RXRα expression. The inverse correlation between miR-128-2 and its targets viz. ABCA1 and ABCG1 was also established during high-fat diet in different mice tissues. Our data show that cholesterol efflux is attenuated by miR-128-2 overexpression and, conversely, stimulated by miR-128-2 silencing. Further, we also observed the induction of ER stress response by miR-128-2. In this study, we provide the first evidence of miR-128-2 to be a new regulator of cholesterol homeostasis. Our study shows dual role of miR-128-2, as a pro-apoptotic molecule as well as a regulator of cholesterol homeostasis.

Biochemical changes accompanying apoptotic cell death in retinoblastoma cancer cells treated with lipogenic enzyme inhibitors

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a malignant intra-ocular neoplasm that affects children (usually below the age of 5years). In addition to conventional chemotherapy, novel therapeutic strategies that target metabolic pathways such as glycolysis and lipid metabolism are emerging. Fatty acid synthase (FASN), a lipogenic multi-enzyme complex, is over-expressed in retinoblastoma cancer. The present study evaluated the biochemical basis of FASN inhibition induced apoptosis in cultured Y79 RB cells. FASN inhibitors (cerulenin, triclosan and orlistat) significantly inhibited FASN enzyme activity (P<0.05) in Y79 RB cells. This was accompanied by a decrease in palmitate synthesis (end-product depletion), and increased malonyl CoA levels (substrate accumulation). Differential lipid profile was biochemically estimated in neoplastic (Y79 RB) and non-neoplastic (3T3) cells subjected to FASN inhibition. The relative proportion of phosphatidyl choline to neutral lipids (triglyceride+total cholesterol) in Y79 RB cancer cells was found to be higher than the non-neoplastic cells, indicative of altered lipid distribution and utilization in tumor cells. FASN inhibitor treated Y79 RB and fibroblast cells showed decrease in the cellular lipids (triglyceride, cholesterol and phosphatidyl choline) levels. Apoptotic DNA damage induced by FASN inhibitors was accompanied by enhanced lipid peroxidation.

Mass spectrometry-based quantitative metabolomics revealed a distinct lipid profile in breast cancer patients

Breast cancer accounts for the largest number of newly diagnosed cases in female cancer patients. Although mammography is a powerful screening tool, about 20% of breast cancer cases cannot be detected by this method. New diagnostic biomarkers for breast cancer are necessary. Here, we used a mass spectrometry-based quantitative metabolomics method to analyze plasma samples from 55 breast cancer patients and 25 healthy controls. A number of 30 patients and 20 age-matched healthy controls were used as a training dataset to establish a diagnostic model and to identify potential biomarkers. The remaining samples were used as a validation dataset to evaluate the predictive accuracy for the established model. Distinct separation was obtained from an orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model with good prediction accuracy. Based on this analysis, 39 differentiating metabolites were identified, including significantly lower levels of lysophosphatidylcholines and higher levels of sphingomyelins in the plasma samples obtained from breast cancer patients compared with healthy controls. Using logical regression, a diagnostic equation based on three metabolites (lysoPC a C16:0, PC ae C42:5 and PC aa C34:2) successfully differentiated breast cancer patients from healthy controls, with a sensitivity of 98.1% and a specificity of 96.0%.

Aberrant lipid metabolism: an emerging diagnostic and therapeutic target in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer remains the most lethal gynaecological cancer. A better understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of ovarian cancer is of critical importance to develop early detection tests and identify new therapeutic targets that would increase survival. Cancer cells depend on de novo lipid synthesis for the generation of fatty acids to meet the energy requirements for increased tumour growth. There is increasing evidence that lipid metabolism is deregulated in cancers, including ovarian cancer. The increased expression and activity of lipogenic enzymes is largely responsible for increased lipid synthesis, which is regulated by metabolic and oncogenic signalling pathways. This article reviews the latest knowledge on lipid metabolism and the alterations in the expression of lipogenic enzymes and downstream signalling pathways in ovarian cancer. Current developments for exploiting lipids as biomarkers for the detection of early stage ovarian cancer and therapeutic targets are discussed. Current research targeting lipogenic enzymes and lipids to increase the cytotoxicity of chemotherapy drugs is also highlighted.

Research of influence and mechanism of combining exercise with diet control on a model of lipid metabolism rat induced by high fat diet

Objective

To investigate the influence and mechanism of combining exercise with diet control on a model of lipid metabolism rat induced by high fat diet.

Methods

Twenty-four male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups of 8: normal, model and intervention. The model group and intervention group were fed with high fat diet, while the normal group received basal feed. From day 1, the intervention group was randomly given interventions such as swimming exercise and dietary restriction. The interventions duration were 28 days. At the end of the experiment, the levels of rats’ body weight and liver weight were detected, the serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and hepatic triglyceride content (TG) were detected by using biochemical assay, serum level of gastrin (GAS), motilin (MTL) were assayed by the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results

Compared with the level of body weight and liver weight in the normal rats, body weight and liver weight in the rat of the model group were significantly increase (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Plasma concentrations of TC, LDL-C and hepatic TG in the model group were significantly increased compared with those in the normal group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The contents of GAS, MTL, HDL-C in the model rats’plasma were significantly reduced compared with those of the normal group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Compared with those in the model group, rats’ body weight, liver weight, serum TC, LDL-C, and TG content of liver in the intervention group decreased significantly (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Meanwhile, serum content of GAS, MTL, HDL-C were significantly improved in the intervention rats compared to the model group.

Conclusion

The action of combining exercise with diet control for lipid metabolism disorder might be related to regulation of GAS, MTL and other gastrointestinal hormones.

Method for lipidomic analysis: p53 expression modulation of sulfatide, ganglioside, and phospholipid composition of U87 MG glioblastoma cells

Lipidomics can complement genomics and proteomics by providing new insight into dynamic changes in biomembranes; however, few reports in the literature have explored, on an organism-wide scale, the functional link between nonenzymatic proteins and cellular lipids. Here, we report changes induced by adenovirus-delivered wild-type p53 gene and chemotherapy of U87 MG glioblastoma cells, a treatment known to trigger apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. We compare polar lipid changes in treated cells and control cells by use of a novel, sensitive method that employs lipid extraction, one-step liquid chromatography separation, high-resolution mass analysis, and Kendrick mass defect analysis. Nano-LC FT-ICR MS and quadrupole linear ion trap MS/MS analysis of polar lipids yields hundreds of unique assignments of glyco- and phospholipids at sub-ppm mass accuracy and high resolving power (m/Deltam50% = 200 000 at m/z 400) at 1 s/scan. MS/MS data confirm molecular structures in many instances. Sulfatides are most highly modulated by wild-type p53 treatment. The treatment also leads to an increase in phospholipids such as phosphatidyl inositols, phosphatidyl serines, phosphatidyl glycerols, and phosphatidyl ethanolamines. An increase in hydroxylated phospholipids is especially noteworthy. Also, a decrease in the longer chain gangliosides, GD1 and GM1b, is observed in wild-type p53 (treated) cells.