Fatty Acid Metabolism and Cancer.

Although normal cells depend on exogenous lipids to function and survive, excessive amount of body fat has been associated with increased risk for certain human cancers. Cancer cells can redirect metabolic pathways to meet energy demands through the regulation of fatty acid metabolism. The importance of de novo fatty acid synthesis and fatty acid oxidation in cancer cells suggests fatty acid metabolism may be targeted for anticancer treatment through the use of pharmacological blockade to limit cell proliferation, growth, and transformation. However, our current knowledge about fatty acid metabolism in cancer cells remains limited, and the investigations of such processes and related pathways are certainly warranted to reveal the clinical relevance of fatty acid metabolism in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Discovery of potential serum protein biomarkers for lymph node metastasis in oral cancer.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of our study was to identify serum protein biomarkers for node-positive oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Biomarkers indicating lymph node metastasis provides a valuable classification methodology to optimize treatment plans for patients with OSCC. METHODS: Quantitative serum proteomic analysis of OSCCs with either node-positive or node-negative disease was performed with tandem mass spectrometry and isobaric tagging for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ). Immunoassays were used to validate a panel of candidate protein biomarkers and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the performance of the candidate biomarkers. RESULTS: A total of 282 serum proteins were quantified between node-positive and node-negative OSCCs with the proteomic approach. Four candidate biomarkers, gelsolin, fibronectin, angiotensinogen, and haptoglobin, were validated in an independent group of patients with node-positive or node-negative OSCC. The best candidate biomarker, gelsolin, yielded a ROC value of 89% for node-positive OSCC, although the sample size for validation is relatively small. Fibronectin, gelsolin, and angiotensinogen were also found to be differentially expressed between cancer cell lines of node-positive and node-negative cancer origin. CONCLUSION: Our studies suggest that testing of serum protein biomarkers might help detect lymph node metastasis of oral cancer. Because of limited sample size in our studies, long-term longitudinal studies with large populations of individuals with oral cancer are needed to validate these potential biomarkers.

Oral cancer cells may rewire alternative metabolic pathways to survive from siRNA silencing of metabolic enzymes.

BACKGROUND: Cancer cells may undergo metabolic adaptations that support their growth as well as drug resistance properties. The purpose of this study is to test if oral cancer cells can overcome the metabolic defects introduced by using small interfering RNA (siRNA) to knock down their expression of important metabolic enzymes. METHODS: UM1 and UM2 oral cancer cells were transfected with siRNA to transketolase (TKT) or siRNA to adenylate kinase (AK2), and Western blotting was used to confirm the knockdown. Cellular uptake of glucose and glutamine and production of lactate were compared between the cancer cells with either TKT or AK2 knockdown and those transfected with control siRNA. Statistical analysis was performed with student T-test. RESULTS: Despite the defect in the pentose phosphate pathway caused by siRNA knockdown of TKT, the survived UM1 or UM2 cells utilized more glucose and glutamine and secreted a significantly higher amount of lactate than the cells transferred with control siRNA. We also demonstrated that siRNA knockdown of AK2 constrained the proliferation of UM1 and UM2 cells but similarly led to an increased uptake of glucose/glutamine and production of lactate by the UM1 or UM2 cells survived from siRNA silencing of AK2. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the metabolic defects introduced by siRNA silencing of metabolic enzymes TKT or AK2 may be compensated by alternative feedback metabolic mechanisms, suggesting that cancer cells may overcome single defective pathways through secondary metabolic network adaptations. The highly robust nature of oral cancer cell metabolism implies that a systematic medical approach targeting multiple metabolic pathways may be needed to accomplish the continued improvement of cancer treatment.