Small-Molecule Inhibition of 6-Phosphofructo-2-Kinase Activity Suppresses Glycolytic Flux and Tumor Growth
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110 Small-molecule inhibition of 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase activity suppresses glycolytic flux and tumor growth Brian Clem,1,3 Sucheta Telang,1,3 Amy Clem,1,3 reduces the intracellular concentration of Fru-2,6-BP, Abdullah Yalcin,1,2,3 Jason Meier,2 glucose uptake, and growth of established tumors in vivo. Alan Simmons,1,3 Mary Ann Rasku,1,3 Taken together, these data support the clinical development Sengodagounder Arumugam,1,3 of 3PO and other PFKFB3 inhibitors as chemotherapeutic William L. Dean,2,3 John Eaton,1,3 Andrew Lane,1,3 agents. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(1):110–20] John O. Trent,1,2,3 and Jason Chesney1,2,3 Departments of 1Medicine and 2Biochemistry and Molecular Introduction Biology and 3Molecular Targets Group, James Graham Brown Neoplastic transformation causes a marked increase in Cancer Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky glucose uptake and catabolic conversion to lactate, which forms the basis for the most specific cancer diagnostic 18 Abstract examination—positron emission tomography of 2- F- fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18F-2-DG) uptake (1). The protein 6-Phosphofructo-1-kinase, a rate-limiting enzyme of products of several oncogenes directly increase glycolytic glycolysis, is activated in neoplastic cells by fructose-2,6- flux even under normoxic conditions, a phenomenon bisphosphate (Fru-2,6-BP), a product of four 6-phospho- originally termed the Warburg effect (2, 3). For example, fructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase isozymes c-myc is a transcription factor that promotes the expression (PFKFB1-4). The inducible PFKFB3 isozyme is constitu- of glycolytic enzyme mRNAs, and its expression is increased tively expressed by neoplastic cells and required for the in several human cancers regardless of the oxygen pressure high glycolytic rate and anchorage-independent growth of (4, 5). Understanding the precise effectors of common ras-transformed cells. We report herein the computational oncogenes that regulate the metabolic shifts required for identification of a small-molecule inhibitor of PFKFB3, neoplastic growth and survival should introduce a plethora 3-(3-pyridinyl)-1-(4-pyridinyl)-2-propen-1-one (3PO), which of metabolic targets for the development of antineoplastic suppresses glycolytic flux and is cytostatic to neoplastic agents. cells. 3PO inhibits recombinant PFKFB3 activity, suppresses Recently, the ras signaling pathway has been invoked glucose uptake, and decreases the intracellular concentra- as a central regulator of the glycolytic phenotype of cancer tion of Fru-2,6-BP, lactate, ATP, NAD+, and NADH. 3PO (6–9). Stable transfection of an oncogenic allele of H-ras markedly attenuates the proliferation of several human into immortalized cells increases glucose uptake, lactate malignant hematopoietic and adenocarcinoma cell lines secretion, and sensitivity to glycolytic inhibitors (8, 10, 11). (IC , 1.4-24 Mmol/L) and is selectively cytostatic to ras- 50 Oncogenic ras signaling causes the activation of 6-phos- transformed human bronchial epithelial cells relative to phofructo-1-kinase (PFK-1), the first irreversible and normal human bronchial epithelial cells. The PFKFB3 committed step of glycolysis (10). The increase in the enzyme is an essential molecular target of 3PO because activity of PFK-1 by ras is due in part to an increase in the transformed cells are rendered resistant to 3PO by ectopic steady-state concentration of a potent PFK-1 allosteric expression of PFKFB3 and sensitive to 3PO by heterozygotic activator, fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (Fru-2,6-BP; Fig. 1; genomic deletion of PFKFB3. Importantly, i.p. administra- ref. 10). Fru-2,6-BP relieves the tonic allosteric inhibition tion of 3PO (0.07 mg/g) to tumor-bearing mice markedly of PFK-1 caused by ATP, allowing untethered glycolytic flux through the PFK-1 checkpoint and into anabolic pathways required for growth (12). That ras increases Fru-2,6-BP in immortalized cells to increase glycolytic flux Received 7/18/07; revised 10/5/07; accepted 11/19/07. indicates that this particular metabolic regulatory pathway Grant support: Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program may be essential for neoplastic transformation. Postdoctoral Multidisciplinary Award BC051684 (B. Clem), Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Translational Research Grant (J. Chesney), NIH The steady-state concentration of Fru-2,6-BP is controlled grant 1 R01 CA11642801 (J. Chesney), Philip Morris External Research by a family of bifunctional 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/ Program (unrestricted; J. Chesney), and NIH grant 1P20 RR18733 (JC and J.O. Trent). fructose-2,6-bisphosphatases (PFK-2/FBPases), which are PFKFB1-4 The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the encoded by four genes (13). An inducible payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked isoform of PFK-2/FBPase encoded by the PFKFB3 gene advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to (termed the PFKFB3 isozyme; initially reported as iPFK2, indicate this fact. placental PFK2, ubiquitous PFK2, and PGR1; refs. 14–17) Requests for reprints: Jason Chesney, Room 204E, Delia Baxter II Building, 580 South Preston Street, Louisville, KY 40202. Phone: 502-852-3679. is up-regulated by inflammatory and hypoxic stimuli E-mail: [email protected] and contains an oncogene-like AU-rich element in the Copyright C 2008 American Association for Cancer Research. 3¶-untranslated region (14, 18). The PFKFB3 isozyme is doi:10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-07-0482 overexpressed by leukemias as well as by colon, prostate, MolCancerTher2008;7(1).January2008 Downloaded from mct.aacrjournals.org on September 24, 2021. © 2008 American Association for Cancer Research. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 111 Figure 1. PFKFB3 produces Fru-2,6-BP, a potent stimulator of glycolysis. Oncogenic ras increases the expression and activity of PFKFB3, which produces Fru- 2,6-BP, an allosteric activator of PFK-1. High PFK-1 activity causes increased glycolytic flux, allowing for the increased production of the macromolecules (RNA, DNA, amino acids, fatty acids, etc.) and energy (NADH and ATP) necessary for enhanced cellular proliferation. Because glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle and electron transport are tightly coupled through NAD+/ NADH, disruption of any of these pathways will result in diminished anabolism and energy production, ulti- mately leading to suppression of growth. F-1,6-BP, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate; DHA, dihydroxyacetone; G3P, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate; PRPP, 5-phospho- D-ribosyl-1-pyrophosphate. lung, breast, pancreas, thyroid, and ovarian tumors and is reduces Fru-2,6-BP production and 18F-2-DG uptake by required for the growth of certain leukemia and cervical tumors in situ. Importantly, the cytostatic effects of 3PO are cancer cell lines (14, 19, 20). Taken together, these increased when intracellular Fru-2,6-BP is reduced and observations indicate that among the family of four PFK- suppressed when intracellular Fru-2,6-BP is increased. 2/FBPases, the PFKFB3 isozyme may prove to be an Taken together, these data provide the first direct evidence important metabolic effector supporting neoplastic trans- that the identification of small-molecule inhibitors of the formation. PFK-2/FBPases may be an important new avenue for the The expression of the PFKFB3 isozyme was recently development of novel chemotherapeutic agents. observed to be increased on immortalization and transfor- mation of normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells Materials and Methods +/À (21). In addition, heterozygous PFKFB3 mouse fibro- PFKFB3 Molecular Modeling and Compound Screen blasts immortalized and transformed with large T antigen rasV12 The PFKFB3 homology model used the X-ray structure of and H- maintain a reduced intracellular concentra- the rat testes PFKFB4 (PDB code 1BIF) isozyme as a tion of Fru-2,6-BP, which suppresses glycolytic flux to structural template. An alignment was generated using lactate relative to wild-type control fibroblasts. This Clustal W (22). Four homology models were generated glycolytic deficit in turn attenuates anchorage-independent using Modeller (23), and the structure that best reproduced growth in soft agar and the growth and glucose uptake of the PFKFB3 binding site (14, 24) was selected for further tumors in mice (21). Based on these observations, small- use. The residues essential to ligand binding and protein molecule inhibitors that target the substrate-binding do- activity for PFKFB3 (14, 24) were correlated to equivalent main of the PFKFB3 isozyme may prove useful as novel residue numbers in the consensus structure. The model antineoplastic agents. was read into InsightII (Accelrys), and three of the essential We report herein the identification and characterization 66 161 94 residues, Arg , Tyr , and Thr , were selected as the of a novel inhibitor of the PFKFB3 isozyme. Using centroid target for the virtual screening runs. We used the computational modeling and virtual screening of chemical Ludi (Accelrys) virtual screening program to process databases, we identified a PFKFB3 isozyme inhibitor, the ChemNavigator iResearch Library (ChemNavigator).4 compound 3-(3-pyridinyl)-1-(4-pyridinyl)-2-propen-1-one a After these screening runs were completed, molecules (3PO), which ( ) decreases intracellular Fru-2,6-BP and scoring above 500 using Ludi’s scoring system were suppresses glycolytic flux in transformed cells; (b)is selectively cytostatic to ras-transformed cells; (c)sup- presses tumorigenic growth of breast adenocarcinoma, leukemia,