The Ephrin-A1/EPHA2 Signaling Axis Regulates Glutamine Metabolism in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Victoria M
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Published OnlineFirst February 1, 2016; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-15-0847 Cancer Molecular and Cellular Pathobiology Research The Ephrin-A1/EPHA2 Signaling Axis Regulates Glutamine Metabolism in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Victoria M. Youngblood1, Laura C. Kim1, Deanna N. Edwards2, Yoonha Hwang2,3, Pranav R. Santapuram1, Steven M. Stirdivant4, Pengcheng Lu5, Fei Ye5, Dana M. Brantley-Sieders2,6, and Jin Chen1,2,3,6,7 Abstract Dysregulation of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) contributes to bolic pathway that generates intermediates for lipogenesis. Phar- cellular transformation and cancer progression by disrupting key macologic inhibition of glutaminase activity reduced tumor metabolic signaling pathways. The EPHA2 RTK is overexpressed growth in both ephrin-A1–depleted and EPHA2-overexpressing þ in aggressive forms of breast cancer, including the HER2 subtype, tumor allografts in vivo. Mechanistically, we show that the and correlates with poor prognosis. However, the role of EPHA2 enhanced proliferation and glutaminolysis in the absence of in tumor metabolism remains unexplored. In this study, we used ephrin-A1 were attributed to increased RhoA-dependent gluta- in vivo and in vitro models of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer to minase activity. EPHA2 depletion or pharmacologic inhibition investigate the mechanisms by which EPHA2 ligand–indepen- of Rho, glutaminase, or fatty acid synthase abrogated the dent signaling promotes tumorigenesis in the absence of its increased lipid content and proliferative effects of ephrin-A1 prototypic ligand, ephrin-A1. We demonstrate that ephrin-A1 knockdown. Together, these findings highlight a novel, unsus- loss leads to upregulated glutamine metabolism and lipid accu- pected connection between the EPHA2/ephrin-A1 signaling axis mulation that enhanced tumor growth. Global metabolic profil- and tumor metabolism, and suggest potential new therapeutic ing of ephrin-A1–null, HER2-overexpressing mammary tumors targets in cancer subtypes exhibiting glutamine dependency. revealed a significant increase in glutaminolysis, a critical meta- Cancer Res; 76(7); 1–12. Ó2016 AACR. Introduction tion occur upon Eph receptor binding to their ligands, known as ephrins, Eph receptors can also be activated by other cell-surface Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) are key regulators of signal receptors, such as EGFR and ERBB2 (3, 5). Thus, cumulative transduction pathways that promote cell growth, survival, and evidence in breast cancer supports two modes for EPHA2 signal- motility during malignant progression of solid tumors. Recent ing. In the ligand-dependent mode, EPHA2 can engage in ligand- advances in the analysis of tumor genomes revealed that EPHA2 dependent forward signaling that suppresses tumor cell prolifer- RTK is frequently overexpressed in aggressive human breast can- ation and invasiveness (6, 7). In the second mode, EPHA2 can cers and correlates with poor patient survival and resistance to signal in a ligand-independent manner that promotes tumor therapeutic agents (1–4). EPHA2 belongs to the Eph family of malignancy—a mechanism highly dependent upon phosphory- RTKs, which contain distinct regions for ligand binding, receptor lation of S897 (6). This model, however, has not been directly clustering, and signaling. Though receptor clustering and activa- tested in a transgenic mammary tumor model, and the mecha- nism by which ephrin-A1 exerts its tumor-suppressive role has yet 1Department of Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, to be fully elucidated. Tennessee. 2Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Department Dysregulation of RTK signaling can result in aberrant metab- 3 of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. Veterans olism through disruption of critical metabolic pathways. Recent Affairs Medical Center,Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, fi Tennessee. 4Metabolon Inc., Durham, North Carolina. 5Department of studies in tumor metabolism have led to signi cant advances in Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. 6Vanderbilt- our understanding of how tumor cells utilize metabolic switches Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. to produce intermediates for cell growth and division (8, 9). One 7Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt Univer- sity, Nashville, Tennessee. hallmark for proliferating tumor cells is high levels of glucose influx and subsequent aerobic glycolysis with lactate production, Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Research even in the presence of adequate oxygen (termed the "Warburg Online (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/). effect"; ref. 10). Although most cancers depend on a high rate of L.C. Kim and D.N. Edwards contributed equally to this article. aerobic glycolysis, some cancer cells also display addiction Corresponding Authors: Jin Chen, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, to glutamine (11–13). Glutamine, an abundant amino acid, T-3207E, 1161 21st Ave South, Nashville, TN 37232. Phone: 615-343-3819; Fax: 615- can be utilized for energetics in rapidly proliferating cells and is 343-8648; E-mail: [email protected]; or Dana M. Brantley-Sieders, Phone: first catabolized to glutamate by the enzyme, glutaminase 615-343-4783; E-mail: [email protected] (GLS). Oxidative deamination by glutamate dehydrogenase in doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-15-0847 the mitochondrion, or the transamination of glutamate, then Ó2016 American Association for Cancer Research. generates a-ketoglutarate (a-KG; ref. 14). In this capacity, www.aacrjournals.org OF1 Downloaded from cancerres.aacrjournals.org on October 1, 2021. © 2016 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst February 1, 2016; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-15-0847 Youngblood et al. glutamine provides nitrogen for biosynthesis of nucleotides and Kaplan–Meier survival curves for 936 patients with lymph node– amino acids, and serves as a mitochondrial substrate (11). positive breast cancer. Tumors were ranked according to gene a-KG can be further metabolized to citrate, which donates expression values of EPHA2 and EFNA1, scored as high or low. acetyl-CoA groups for lipid biosynthesis. This pathway is used Statistical significance was determined by log-rank P value, and for de novo lipogenesis under hypoxic conditions and is linked HRs with 95% confidence intervals are displayed. to tumor cell proliferation, motility, and survival (15). Although RTKs have been shown to regulate these metabolic Cell culture and in vitro studies pathways in tumors, the role of EPH RTKs in tumor metabolism Human cell lines were purchased from the ATCC and main- has yet to be investigated. tained as described (3, 4). BT474 cell lines were authenticated by In this study, we demonstrate a novel role for ephrin-A1 as a the ATCC cell authentication services utilizing short-tandem regulator of mammary tumor growth and tumor metabolism. repeat profiling. Other cell lines were used at low passage ephrin-A1 Efna1 Gene deletion of ( ) increased the growth of and were not authenticated. The mouse MMTV-Neu cell line was endogenous mammary tumors in a mouse model of breast generated and provided by Rebecca Cook (Vanderbilt University). NeuT cancer driven by activated ERBB2 (MMTV- ). RNAi-medi- These cells were maintained in DMEM/F12 media supplemented ated silencing of ephrin-A1 increased lipid accumulation and with estrogen (5 ng/mL), progesterone (5 ng/mL), insulin (0.5 cell proliferation in both mouse and human breast cancer mg/mL), EGF (5 ng/mL), L-glutamine (2 mmol/L), penicillin fi models. Furthermore, metabolic pro ling of tumors revealed (100 U/mL), streptomycin (100 U/mL), and 10% FBS. siRNA- – increased glutaminolysis in ephrin-A1 null tumors. Mechanis- mediated knockdown, BrdU proliferation, three-dimensional fi tically, we identi ed a signaling pathway involving EPHA2- (3D) Matrigel culture, Rho activity assay, and Western blot anal- – RhoA-glutaminase that mediates ephrin-A1 dependent sup- ysis are as described (3, 4, 39) and in Supplementary Materials. pression of glutaminolysis and lipid accumulation in tumor cells. Collectively, these studies provide in vivo evidence for a Metabolite assays tumor-suppressive role of ephrin-A1 in breast cancer and Intracellular glutamate concentrations were determined using uncover a novel function of ephrin-A1 and EPHA2 in the the enzymatic assay, Glutamate Assay Kit (Sigma), according to regulation of tumor metabolism. the manufacturer's protocol. MCF-10A-HER2 or MMTV-Neu cells 6 Materials and Methods (10 ) were cultured in glutamine-free DMEM/F12 base media for 24 hours. Cells were stimulated with 5% serum, EGF (5 ng/mL), Animal models and in vivo studies and 2 mmol/L of glutamine. Briefly, after treatment, cells were Animals were housed under pathogen-free conditions, and washed with PBS and collected with the provided glutamate assay experiments were performed in accordance with Association, buffer. Lysates were centrifuged, and the supernatants were further Assessment, and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care guide- centrifuged in 10 kDa ultrafiltration spin columns. The concen- lines and with Vanderbilt University Institutional Animal Care trated samples were plated in 96-well plates with the supplied À/À and Use Committee approval. Ephrin-A1 mice were crossed glutamate enzyme mix. Absorbance was measured at 450 nm. with MMTV-NeuT mice. MMTV-NeuT--positive mice that were Concentrations were determined from the standard curve. Statis- þ/þ À/À EphrinA1 or Ephrin-A1