Glutamine Anabolism Plays a Critical Role in Pancreatic Cancer by Coupling Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism

Publication date: 29 October 2019Source: Cell Reports, Volume 29, Issue 5Author(s): Alex J. Bott, Jianliang Shen, Claudia Tonelli, Le Zhan, Nithya Sivaram, Ya-Ping Jiang, Xufen Yu, Vrushank Bhatt, Eric Chiles, Hua Zhong, Sara Maimouni, Weiwei Dai, Stephani Velasquez, Ji-An Pan, Nathiya Muthalagu, Jennifer Morton, Tracy G. Anthony, Hui Feng, Wouter H. Lamers, Daniel J. MurphySummaryGlutamine is thought to play an important role in cancer cells by being deaminated via glutaminolysis to α-ketoglutarate (aKG) to fuel the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. Supporting this notion, aKG supplementation can restore growth/survival of glutamine-deprived cells. However, pancreatic cancers are often poorly vascularized and limited in glutamine supply, in alignment with recent concerns on the significance of glutaminolysis in pancreatic cancer. Here, we show that aKG-mediated rescue of glutamine-deprived pancreatic ductal carcinoma (PDAC) cells requires glutamate ammonia ligase (GLUL), the enzyme responsible for de novo glutamine synthesis. GLUL-deficient PDAC cells are capable of the TCA cycle but defective in aKG-coupled glutamine biosynthesis and subsequent nitrogen anabolic processes. Importantly, GLUL expression is elevated in pancreatic cancer patient samples and in mouse PDAC models. GLUL ablation suppresses the development of KrasG12D-driven murine PDAC. Therefore, GLUL-mediated glutamine biosynthesis couples the TCA cycle with nitrogen anabolism and plays a critical role in PDAC.Gr...
Source: Cell Reports - Category: Cytology Source Type: research