Metabolic shift to serine biosynthesis through 3-PG accumulation and PHGDH induction promotes tumor growth in pancreatic cancer.

Cancer cells craftily adapt their energy metabolism to their microenvironment. Nutrient deprivation due to hypovascularity and fibrosis is a major characteristic of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC); thus, PDAC cells must produce energy intrinsically. However, the enhancement of energy production via activating Kras mutations is insufficient to explain the metabolic rewiring of PDAC cells. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanism underlying the metabolic shift in PDAC cells under serine starvation. Amino acid analysis revealed that the concentrations of all essential amino acids and most nonessential amino acids were decreased in the blood of PDAC patients. In addition, the plasma serine concentration was significantly higher in PDAC patients with PHGDH-high tumors than in those with PHGDH-low tumors. Although the growth and tumorigenesis of PK-59 cells with PHGDH promoter hypermethylation were significantly decreased by serine starvation, these activities were maintained in PDAC cell lines with PHGDH promoter hypomethylation by serine biosynthesis through PHGDH induction. In fact, DNA methylation analysis by pyrosequencing revealed that the methylation status of the PHGDH promoter was inversely correlated with the PHGDH expression level in human PDAC tissues. In addition to PHGDH induction by serine starvation, PDAC cells showed enhanced serine biosynthesis under serine starvation through 3-PG accumulation via PGAM1 knockdown, resulting in enhanced PDAC cell growth and tumor growth. However, PHGDH knockdown efficiently suppressed PDAC cell growth and tumor growth under serine starvation. These findings provide evidence that targeting the serine biosynthesis pathway by inhibiting PHGDH is a potent therapeutic approach to eliminate PDAC cells in nutrient-deprived microenvironments.

Candida albicans uses the surface protein Gpm1 to attach to human endothelial cells and to keratinocytes via the adhesive protein vitronectin.

Candida albicans is a major cause of invasive fungal infections worldwide. Upon infection and when in contact with human plasma as well as body fluids the fungus is challenged by the activated complement system a central part of the human innate immune response. C. albicans controls and evades host complement attack by binding several human complement regulators like Factor H, Factor H-like protein 1 and C4BP to the surface. Gpm1 (Phosphoglycerate mutase 1) is one fungal Factor H/FHL1 -binding protein. As Gpm1 is surface exposed, we asked whether Gpm1 also contributes to host cell attachment. Here, we show by flow cytometry and by laser scanning microscopy that candida Gpm1 binds to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) to keratinocytes (HaCaT), and also to monocytic U937 cells. Wild type candida did bind, but the candida gpm1Δ/Δ knock-out mutant did not bind to these human cells. In addition Gpm1 when attached to latex beads also conferred attachment to human endothelial cells. When analyzing Gpm1-binding to a panel of extracellular matrix proteins, the human glycoprotein vitronectin was identified as a new Gpm1 ligand. Vitronectin is a component of the extracellular matrix and also a regulator of the terminal complement pathway. Vitronectin is present on the surface of HUVEC and keratinocytes and acts as a surface ligand for fungal Gpm1. Gpm1 and vitronectin colocalize on the surface of HUVEC and HaCaT as revealed by laser scanning microscopy. The Gpm1 vitronectin interaction is inhibited by heparin and the interaction is also ionic strength dependent. Taken together, Gpm1 the candida surface protein binds to vitronectin and mediates fungal adhesion to human endothelial cells. Thus fungal Gpm1 and human vitronectin represent a new set of proteins that are relevant for fungal attachment to human cells interaction. Blockade of the Gpm1 vitronectin interaction might provide a new target for therapy.

Phosphoglycerate mutase 1 coordinates glycolysis and biosynthesis to promote tumor growth.

It is unclear how cancer cells coordinate glycolysis and biosynthesis to support rapidly growing tumors. We found that the glycolytic enzyme phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1), commonly upregulated in human cancers due to loss of TP53, contributes to biosynthesis regulation in part by controlling intracellular levels of its substrate, 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PG), and product, 2-phosphoglycerate (2-PG). 3-PG binds to and inhibits 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), while 2-PG activates 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase to provide feedback control of 3-PG levels. Inhibition of PGAM1 by shRNA or a small molecule inhibitor PGMI-004A results in increased 3-PG and decreased 2-PG levels in cancer cells, leading to significantly decreased glycolysis, PPP flux and biosynthesis, as well as attenuated cell proliferation and tumor growth.

Gpm1p is a factor H-, FHL-1-, and plasminogen-binding surface protein of Candida albicans.

The human pathogenic yeast Candida albicans utilizes host complement regulators for immune evasion. Here we identify the first fungal protein that binds Factor H and FHL-1. By screening a protein array of 4088 proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, phosphoglycerate mutase (ScGpm1p) was identified as a Factor H- and FHL-1-binding protein. The homologous C. albicans Gpm1p (CaGpm1p) was cloned and recombinantly expressed as a 36-kDa His-tagged protein. Purified CaGpm1p binds the host complement regulators Factor H and FHL-1, but not C4BP. The CaGpm1p binding regions in the host proteins were localized; FHL-1 binds via short consensus repeats (SCRs) 6 and 7, and Factor H utilizes two contact regions that are located in SCRs 6 and 7 and in SCRs 19 and 20. In addition, recombinant CaGpm1p binds plasminogen via lysine residues. CaGpm1p is a surface protein as demonstrated by immunostaining and flow cytometry. A C. albicans gpm1(-/-) mutant strain was generated that did not grow on glucose-supplemented but on ethanol- and glycerol-supplemented medium. Reduced binding of Factor H and plasminogen to the null mutant strain is in agreement with the presence of additional binding proteins. Attached to CaGpm1p, each of the three host plasma proteins is functionally active. Factor H and FHL-1 show cofactor activity for cleavage of C3b, and bound plasminogen is converted by urokinase-type plasminogen activator to proteolytically active plasmin. Thus, the surface-expressed CaGpm1p is a virulence factor that utilizes the host Factor H, FHL-1, and plasminogen for immune evasion and degradation of extracellular matrices.

Cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutase has an essential role in Caenorhabditis elegans and is conserved in parasitic nematodes.

Phosphoglycerate mutases catalyze the interconversion of 2- and 3-phosphoglycerate in the glycolytic and gluconeogenic pathways. They exist in two unrelated forms that are either cofactor (2,3-diphosphoglycerate)-dependent or cofactor-independent. The two enzymes have no similarity in amino acid sequence, tertiary structure, or catalytic mechanism. Certain organisms including vertebrates have only the cofactor-dependent form, whereas other organisms can possess the independent form or both. Caenorhabditis elegans has been predicted to have only independent phosphoglycerate mutase. In this study, we have cloned and produced recombinant, independent phosphoglycerate mutases from C. elegans and the human-parasitic nematode Brugia malayi. They are 70% identical to each other and related to known bacterial, fungal, and protozoan enzymes. The nematode enzymes possess the catalytic serine, and other key amino acids proposed for catalysis and recombinant enzymes showed typical phosphoglycerate mutase activities in both the glycolytic and gluconeogenic directions. The gene is essential in C. elegans, because the reduction of its activity by RNA interference led to embryonic lethality, larval lethality, and abnormal body morphology. Promoter reporter analysis indicated widespread expression in larval and adult C. elegans with the highest levels apparent in the nerve ring, intestine, and body wall muscles. The enzyme was found in a diverse group of nematodes representing the major clades, indicating that it is conserved throughout this phylum. Our results demonstrate that nematodes, unlike vertebrates, utilize independent phosphoglycerate mutase in glycolytic and gluconeogenic pathways and that the enzyme is probably essential for all nematodes.

The muscle-specific phosphoglycerate mutase gene is specifically expressed in testis during spermatogenesis.

Spermatogenesis is a dramatic differentiation process which involves very selective but poorly characterized gene-expression patterns. To gain insight into this process, we have investigated the expression during spermatogenesis of the genes that encode phosphoglycerate mutase, an essential glycolytic enzyme for the spermatozoa energy supply. By using cDNA and genomic probes we demonstrate the presence in testis of a mRNA corresponding to the muscle-specific phosphoglycerate mutase which shows a longer poly(A) tail. This muscle-specific gene is submitted to developmental regulation during testis maturation and begins to be expressed at postnatal day 22, when germ cells start to enter into meiosis. Northern blot and in situ hybridization experiments show that in contrast to what happens during skeletal-muscle differentiation, PGAM-M gene expression during spermatogenesis is not coupled to constitutive phosphoglycerate mutase (PGAM-B) gene repression. Thus, the muscle-specific PGAM-M gene constitutes a meiotic gene and therefore represents a very interesting model to study differential tissue-specific gene expression.