Introduction: Glycolysis is increased in breast adenocarcinoma cells relative to adjacent normal cells in order to produce the ATP and anabolic precursors required for survival, growth and invasion. Glycolysis also serves as a key source of the reduced form of cytoplasmic nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) necessary for the shuttling of electrons into mitochondria for electron transport. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) regulates glycolytic flux by converting pyruvate to lactate and has been found to be highly expressed in breast tumours. Aspartate aminotransferase (AAT) functions in tandem with malate dehydrogenase to transfer electrons from NADH across the inner mitochondrial membrane. Oxamate is an inhibitor of both LDH and AAT, and we hypothesised that oxamate may disrupt the metabolism and growth of breast adenocarcinoma cells. Methods: We examined the effects of oxamate and the AAT inhibitor amino oxyacetate (AOA) on ¹³C-glucose utilisation, oxygen consumption, NADH and ATP in MDA-MB-231 cells. We then determined the effects of oxamate and AOA on normal human mammary epithelial cells and MDA-MB-231 breast adenocarcinoma cell proliferation, and on the growth of MDA-MB-231 cells as tumours in athymic BALB/c female mice. We ectopically expressed AAT in MDA-MB-231 cells and examined the consequences on the cytostatic effects of oxamate. Finally, we examined the effect of AAT-specific siRNA transfection on MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation. Results: We found that oxamate did not attenuate cellular lactate production as predicted by its LDH inhibitory activity, but did have an anti-metabolic effect that was similar to AAT inhibition with AOA. Specifically, we found that oxamate and AOA decreased the flux of ¹³C-glucose-derived carbons into glutamate and uridine, both products of the mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid cycle, as well as oxygen consumption, a measure of electron transport chain activity. Oxamate and AOA also selectively suppressed the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells relative to normal human mammary epithelial cells and decreased the growth of MDA-MB-231 breast tumours in athymic mice. Importantly, we found that ectopic expression of AAT in MDA-MB-231 cells conferred resistance to the anti-proliferative effects of oxamate and that siRNA silencing of AAT decreased MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation. Conclusions: We conclude that AAT may be a valid molecular target for the development of anti-neoplastic agents.

T cell activation is associated with a rapid increase in intracellular fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (F2,6BP), an allosteric activator of the glycolytic enzyme, 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase. The steady state concentration of F2,6BP in T cells is dependent on the expression of the bifunctional 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatases (PFKFB1-4) and the fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase, TIGAR. Of the PFKFB family of enzymes, PFKFB3 has the highest kinase:bisphosphatase ratio and has been demonstrated to be required for T cell proliferation. A small molecule antagonist of PFKFB3, 3-(3-pyridinyl)-1-(4-pyridinyl)-2-propen-1-one (3PO), recently has been shown to reduce F2,6BP synthesis, glucose uptake and proliferation in transformed cells. We hypothesized that the induction of PFKFB3 expression may be required for the stimulation of glycolysis in T cells and that exposure to the PFKFB3 antagonist, 3PO, would suppress T cell activation.

We previously found that administration of an interleukin 2/diphtheria toxin conjugate (DAB/IL2; Denileukin Diftitox; ONTAK) to stage IV melanoma patients depleted CD4+CD25HIFoxp3+ regulatory T cells and expanded melanoma-specific CD8+ T cells. The goal of this study was to assess the clinical efficacy of DAB/IL2 in an expanded cohort of stage IV melanoma patients.

Maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3, mouse homolog Gtl2) encodes a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that is expressed in many normal tissues, but is suppressed in various cancer cell lines and tumors, suggesting it plays a functional role as a tumor suppressor. Hypermethylation has been shown to contribute to this loss of expression. We now demonstrate that MEG3 expression is regulated by the retinoblastoma protein (Rb) pathway and correlates with a change in cell proliferation. Microarray analysis of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) isolated from mice with genetic deletion of all three Rb family members (TKO) revealed a significant silencing of Gtl2/MEG3 expression compared to WT MEFs, and re-expression of Gtl2/MEG3 caused decrease in cell proliferation and increased apoptosis. MEG3 levels also were suppressed in A549 lung cancer cells compared with normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells, and, similar to the TKO cells, re-constitution of MEG3 led to a decrease in cell proliferation and elevated apoptosis. Activation of pRb by treatment of A549 and SK-MES-1 cells with palbociclib, a CDK4/6 inhibitor, increased the expression of MEG3 in a dose-dependent manner, while knockdown of pRb/p107 attenuated this effect. In addition, expression of phosphorylation-deficient mutant of pRb increased MEG3 levels in both lung cancer cell types. Treatment of these cells with palbociclib also decreased the expression of pRb-regulated DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), while conversely, knockdown of DNMT1 resulted in increased expression of MEG3. As gene methylation has been suggested for MEG3 regulation, we found that palbociclib resulted in decreased methylation of the MEG3 locus similar to that observed with 5-aza-deoxycytidine. Anti-sense oligonucleotide silencing of drug-induced MEG3 expression in A549 and SK-MES-1 cells partially rescued the palbociclib-mediated decrease in cell proliferation, while analysis of the TCGA database revealed decreased MEG3 expression in human lung tumors harboring a disrupted RB pathway. Together, these data suggest that disruption of the pRb-DNMT1 pathway leads to a decrease in MEG3 expression, thereby contributing to the pro-proliferative state of certain cancer cells.