Inhibition of ERRα Prevents Mitochondrial Pyruvate Uptake Exposing NADPH-Generating Pathways as Targetable Vulnerabilities in Breast Cancer

Publication date: 18 June 2019Source: Cell Reports, Volume 27, Issue 12Author(s): Sunghee Park, Rachid Safi, Xiaojing Liu, Robert Baldi, Wen Liu, Juan Liu, Jason W. Locasale, Ching-yi Chang, Donald P. McDonnellSummaryMost cancer cells exhibit metabolic flexibility, enabling them to withstand fluctuations in intratumoral concentrations of glucose (and other nutrients) and changes in oxygen availability. While these adaptive responses make it difficult to achieve clinically useful anti-tumor responses when targeting a single metabolic pathway, they can also serve as targetable metabolic vulnerabilities that can be therapeutically exploited. Previously, we demonstrated that inhibition of estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRα) significantly disrupts mitochondrial metabolism and that this results in substantial antitumor activity in animal models of breast cancer. Here we show that ERRα inhibition interferes with pyruvate entry into mitochondria by inhibiting the expression of mitochondrial pyruvate carrier 1 (MPC1). This results in a dramatic increase in the reliance of cells on glutamine oxidation and the pentose phosphate pathway to maintain nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) homeostasis. In this manner, ERRα inhibition increases the efficacy of glutaminase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase inhibitors, a finding that has clinical significance.Graphical Abstract

Source: Cell Reports - June 20, 2019 Category: Cytology Source Type: research