Chronic acidosis rewires cancer cell metabolism through PPARα signaling.

The mechanisms linking tumor microenvironment acidosis to disease progression are not understood. Here, we used mammary, pancreatic, and colon cancer cells to show that adaptation to growth at an extracellular pH (pH ) mimicking acidic tumor niches is associated with upregulated net acid extrusion capacity and elevated intracellular pH at physiological pH , but not at acidic pH . Using metabolic profiling, shotgun lipidomics, imaging and biochemical analyses, we show that the acid adaptation-induced phenotype is characterized by a shift toward oxidative metabolism, increased lipid droplet-, triacylglycerol-, peroxisome content and mitochondrial hyperfusion.

The intracellular lipid-binding domain of human Na/H exchanger 1 forms a lipid-protein co-structure essential for activity.

Dynamic interactions of proteins with lipid membranes are essential regulatory events in biology, but remain rudimentarily understood and particularly overlooked in membrane proteins. The ubiquitously expressed membrane protein Na/H-exchanger 1 (NHE1) regulates intracellular pH (pH) with dysregulation linked to e.g.