Unlabelled: When the electron transport chain (ETC) function is impaired, cancer cells rely on reductive carboxylation (RC) to convert α-ketoglutarate (αKG) to citrate for macromolecular synthesis, thereby promoting tumor growth. Currently, there is no viable therapy to inhibit RC for cancer treatment. In this study, we demonstrate that the mitochondrial uncoupler treatment effectively inhibits RC in cancer cells. Mitochondrial uncoupler treatment activates the ETC and increases the NAD+/NADH ratio. Using U-13C-glutamine and 1-13C-glutamine tracers, we show that mitochondrial uncoupling accelerates the oxidative tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and blocks RC under hypoxia, in von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor-deficient kidney cancer cells, or under anchorage-independent growth condition. Together, these data demonstrate that mitochondrial uncoupling redirects α-KG from RC back to the oxidative TCA cycle, highlighting that the NAD+/NADH ratio is one key switch that determines the metabolic fate of α-KG. Inhibiting RC could be a key mechanism by which mitochondrial uncouplers inhibit tumor growth.
Implications: Mitochondrial uncoupling is a novel strategy to target RC in cancer.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-23-0049 | DOI Listing |
J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle
February 2025
Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
Background: Obesity is a chronic disease associated with increased risk of multiple metabolic and mental health-related comorbidities. Recent advances in obesity pharmacotherapy, particularly with glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (RAs), have the potential to transform obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) care by promoting marked weight loss, improving glycaemic control and addressing multiple obesity-related comorbidities, with added cardio-renal benefits. Dual agonists combining GLP-1 with other enteropancreatic hormones such as glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) have also been developed in recent years, leading to greater weight loss than using GLP-1 RAs alone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain.
Obesity poses a global health challenge, demanding a deeper understanding of adipose tissue (AT) and its mitochondria. This study describes the role of the mitochondrial protein Methylation-controlled J protein (MCJ/DnaJC15) in orchestrating brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis. Here we show how MCJ expression decreases during obesity, as evident in human and mouse adipose tissue samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChem Biol Interact
January 2025
Department of Biotechnology, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38453, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:
Capsaicin, a polyphenol, is known to regulate energy expenditure and thermogenesis in adipocytes and muscles. However, its role in modulating uncoupling proteins (UCPs) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent thermogenesis in muscles remains unclear. This study investigated the mechanisms underlying the role of capsaicin in modulating the UCP- and ATP-dependent thermogenesis in C2C12 myoblasts, as well as the gastrocnemius (GM) and soleus muscles (SM) of mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhytomedicine
December 2024
Department of Science in Korean Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, 02447, Seoul, South Korea; Department of Pharmacology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 02447, Seoul, South Korea; Kyung Hee Institute of Convergence Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 02447, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address:
Background: Beige adipocytes have physiological functions similar to brown adipocytes, which are available to increase energy expenditure through uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) within mitochondria. Recently, many studies showed white adipocytes can undergo remodeling into beige adipocytes, called "browning", by increasing fusion and fission events referred to as mitochondrial dynamics.
Purpose: In this study, we aimed to investigate the browning effects of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HA), one of the major compounds of black raspberries.
Cancers (Basel)
January 2025
Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
Cancer cells must reprogram their metabolism to sustain rapid growth. This is accomplished in part by switching to aerobic glycolysis, uncoupling glucose from mitochondrial metabolism, and performing anaplerosis via alternative carbon sources to replenish intermediates of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and sustain oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). While this metabolic program produces adequate biosynthetic intermediates, reducing agents, ATP, and epigenetic remodeling cofactors necessary to sustain growth, it also produces large amounts of byproducts that can generate a hostile tumor microenvironment (TME) characterized by low pH, redox stress, and poor oxygenation.
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