The decrease of glycolytic enzyme hexokinase 1 accelerates tumor malignancy via deregulating energy metabolism but sensitizes cancer cells to 2-deoxyglucose inhibition.

Malignant tumors often display an aberrant energy metabolism that relies primarily on glycolysis to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) the so-called Warburg effect or aerobic glycolysis. Thus, the elucidation of this energetic alteration in malignant tumors is important in the search for more effective therapeutics against malignant cancers, the most deadly human disease. To investigate whether attenuated glycolytic activity modulates tumor progression, the effects of silencing the first and rate-limiting glycolytic enzyme hexokinase (HK) isozymes HK1 and HK2 were examined. There was an inverse correlation between the expression of HK1 and HK2 in human cancer cells. In cervical carcinoma cells, the HK1 but not HK2 knockdown induced a phenotypic change characteristic of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, which accelerated tumor growth and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo analyses. Notably, the silencing of HK1 disrupted aerobic respiration and increased glycolysis, but it had no effect on ATP generation. These metabolic changes were associated with higher HK2 and lactate dehydrogenase 1 expression but a lower citrate synthase level. Particularly, the HK1 knockdown induced aberrant energy metabolism that was almost recapitulated by HK2 overexpression. Moreover, the HK1-silenced cells showed strong glucose-dependent growth and 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) induced cell proliferation inhibition. These results clearly indicate that the silencing of HK1, but not HK2, alters energy metabolism and induces an EMT phenotype, which enhances tumor malignancy, but increases the susceptibility of cancer cells to 2-DG inhibition. In addition, this work also suggests that the glycolytic inhibitors should be used only to treat cancers with elevated glycolytic activity.

Examining the response pressure along a fluid-filled elastic tube to comprehend Frank's arterial resonance model.

Frank first proposed the arterial resonance in 1899. Arteries are blood-filled elastic vessels, but resonance phenomena for a fluid-filled elastic tube has not drawn much attention yet. In this study, we measured the pressure along long elastic tubes in response to either a single impulsive water ejection or a periodic water input. The experimental results showed the low damped pressure oscillation initiated by a single impulsive water input; and the natural frequencies of the tube, identified by the peaks of the response in the frequency domain, were inversely proportional to the length of the tube. We found that the response to the periodic input reached a steady distributed oscillation with the same period of the input after a short transient time; and the optimal pressure response, or resonance, occurred when the pumping frequency was near the fundamental natural frequency of the system. We pointed out that the distributed forced oscillation could also be a suitable approach to analyze the arterial pressure wave. Unlike Frank's resonance model in which the whole arterial system was lumped together to a simple 0-D oscillator and got only one natural frequency, a tube has more than one natural frequency because the pressure P(z,t) is a 1-D oscillatory function of the axial position z and the time t. The benefit of having more than one natural frequency was then discussed.

Loss of the respiratory enzyme citrate synthase directly links the Warburg effect to tumor malignancy.

To investigate whether altered energy metabolism induces the Warburg effect and results in tumor malignancy, the respiratory enzyme citrate synthase (CS) was examined, silenced, and the effects analyzed. In human cervical carcinoma cells, RNAi-mediated CS knockdown induced morphological changes characteristic of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). This switch accelerated cancer cell metastasis and proliferation in in vitro assays and in vivo tumor xenograft models. Notably, CS knockdown cells exhibited severe defects in respiratory activity and marked decreases in ATP production, but great increases in glycolytic metabolism. This malignant progression was due to activation of EMT-related regulators; altered energy metabolism resulted from deregulation of the p53/TIGAR and SCO2 pathways. This phenotypic change was completely reversed by p53 reactivation via treatment with proteasome inhibitor MG132 or co-knockdown of E3 ligase HDM2 and partially suppressed by ATP treatment. This study directly links the Warburg effect to tumor malignancy via induction of the EMT phenotype.

Identification and characterization of the mitochondrial targeting sequence and mechanism in human citrate synthase.

Citrate synthase (CS), the first and rate-limiting enzyme of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, plays a decisive role in regulating energy generation of mitochondrial respiration. Most mitochondrial proteins are synthesized in the cytoplasm as preproteins with an amino (N)-terminal mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS) that directs mitochondria-specific sorting of the preprotein. However, the MTS and targeting mechanism of the human CS protein are not fully characterized. The human CS gene is a single nuclear gene which transcribes into two mRNA variants, isoform a (CSa) and b (CSb), by alternative splicing of exon 2. CSa encodes 466 amino acids, including a putative N-terminal MTS, while CSb expresses 400 residues with a shorter N terminus, lacking the MTS. Our results indicated that CSa is localized in the mitochondria and the N-terminal 27 amino acids, including a well-conserved RXY downward arrow (S/A) motif (the RHAS sequence), can efficiently target the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) into the mitochondria. Furthermore, site-directed mutagenesis analysis of the conserved basic amino acids and serine/threonine residues revealed that the R9 residue is essential but all serine/threonine residues are dispensable in the mitochondrial targeting function. Moreover, RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated gene silencing of the preprotein import receptors, including TOM20, TOM22, and TOM70, showed that all three preprotein import receptors are required for transporting CSa into the mitochondria. In conclusion, we have experimentally identified the mitochondrial targeting sequence of human CSa and elucidated its targeting mechanism. These results provide an important basis for the study of mitochondrial dysfunction due to aberrant CSa trafficking.