Metabolic programs are known to be altered in cancers arising from various tissues. Malignant transformation can alter signaling pathways related to metabolism and increase the demand for both energy and biomass for the proliferating cancerous cells. This scenario is further complexed by the crosstalk between transformed cells and the microenvironment. One of the most common metabolic alterations, which occurs in many tissues and in the context of multiple oncogenic drivers, is the increased demand for the amino acid glutamine. Many studies have attributed this increased demand for glutamine to the carbon backbone and its role in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle anaplerosis. However, an increasing number of studies are now emphasizing the importance of glutamine functioning as a proteogenic building block, a nitrogen donor and carrier, an exchanger for import of other amino acids, and a signaling molecule. Herein, we highlight the recent literature on glutamine’s versatile role in cancer, with a focus on nitrogen metabolism, and therapeutic implications of glutamine metabolism in cancer.

Glutamine synthetase (GS) catalyzes de novo synthesis of glutamine that facilitates cancer cell growth. In the liver, GS functions next to the urea cycle to remove ammonia waste. As a dysregulated urea cycle is implicated in cancer development, the impact of GS’s ammonia clearance function has not been explored in cancer. Here, we show that oncogenic activation of β-catenin (encoded by CTNNB1) led to a decreased urea cycle and elevated ammonia waste burden. While β-catenin induced the expression of GS, which is thought to be cancer promoting, surprisingly, genetic ablation of hepatic GS accelerated the onset of liver tumors in several mouse models that involved β-catenin activation. Mechanistically, GS ablation exacerbated hyperammonemia and facilitated the production of glutamate-derived nonessential amino acids, which subsequently stimulated mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). Pharmacological and genetic inhibition of mTORC1 and glutamic transaminases suppressed tumorigenesis facilitated by GS ablation. While patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, especially those with CTNNB1 mutations, have an overall defective urea cycle and increased expression of GS, there exists a subset of patients with low GS expression that is associated with mTORC1 hyperactivation. Therefore, GS-mediated ammonia clearance serves as a tumor-suppressing mechanism in livers that harbor β-catenin activation mutations and a compromised urea cycle.

Retinoic acid receptor responder 1 (RARRES1) is silenced in many cancers and is differentially expressed in metabolism associated diseases, such as hepatic steatosis, hyperinsulinemia and obesity. Here we report a novel function of RARRES1 in metabolic reprogramming of epithelial cells. Using non-targeted LC-MS, we discovered that RARRES1 depletion in epithelial cells caused a global increase in lipid synthesis. RARRES1-depleted cells rewire glucose metabolism by switching from aerobic glycolysis to glucose-dependent de novo lipogenesis (DNL). Treatment with fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitor, C75, reversed the effects of RARRES1 depletion. The increased DNL in RARRES1-depleted normal breast and prostate epithelial cells proved advantageous to the cells during starvation, as the increase in fatty acid availability lead to more oxidized fatty acids (FAO), which were used for mitochondrial respiration. Expression of RARRES1 in several common solid tumors is also contextually correlated with expression of fatty acid metabolism genes and fatty acid-regulated transcription factors. Pathway enrichment analysis led us to determine that RARRES1 is regulated by peroxisome proliferating activated receptor (PPAR) signaling. These findings open up a new avenue for metabolic reprogramming and identify RARRES1 as a potential target for cancers and other diseases with impaired fatty acid metabolism.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: The goal of this study is to examine bioenergetic phenotype of retinoic acid receptor responder 1 (RARRES1)-depleted epithelial cells and to facilitate the discovery of personalized metabo-therapeutics in the context of cancers characterized with loss of or low expression of RARRES1. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Anoikis assay and annexinV labeling were used to assess drug resistance and apoptotic phenotype in RARRES1-depleted epithelial cells. Metabolomics, AMP kinase activity, mito-tracker, and extracellular flux assays were used to examine the bioenergetic profile of RARRES1-depleted epithelial cells. Extracellular flux assays were used to assess the phenotype of RARRES1-depleted epithelial cells treated with or without metformin. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: RARRES1 is a major regulator of mitochondrial function. Its depletion in tumors induces an oxidative phosphorylation dependent phenotype and subsequently increases ATP abundance in the cell, enhances anabolic pathways and increases survival. Treatment with FDA approved mitochondrial respiration inhibitor, metformin, reversed the metabolic phenotype of RARRES1 depleted-epithelial cells. Metformin could be the ideal therapeutics to reduce tumor burden in cancers with loss of or low expression of RARRES1. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Bioenergetic dynamics are emerging as a basis for understanding the pathology of cancer. The malignancy progresses as its metabolic pattern and mitochondrial respiration become more dysfunctional. The regulatory pathways of bioenergetic dynamics are currently poorly understood, and the characterization of proteins implicated in those processes must be assessed. One understudied protein and tumor suppressor is RARRES1. RARRES1 is induced by retinoic acid (a major metabolic regulator) and functions as a putative carboxypeptidase inhibitor. Understanding the connection between this carboxypeptidase inhibitor and intermediary metabolism will enlighten our understanding of the bioenergetic profile of cells and facilitate the discovery of personalized metabo-therapeutics in the context of cancer.