Cancer

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cancer

T2 - Arginine starvation impairs mitochondrial respiratory function in ASS1-deficient breast cancer cells

AU - Qiu, Fuming

AU - Chen, Yun Ru

AU - Liu, Xiyong

AU - Chu, Cheng Ying

AU - Shen, Li Jiuan

AU - Xu, Jinghong

AU - Gaur, Shikha

AU - Forman, Henry Jay

AU - Zhang, Hang

AU - Zheng, Shu

AU - Yen, Yun

AU - Huang, Jian

AU - Kung, Hsing Jien

AU - Ann, David K.

PY - 2014/4/1

Y1 - 2014/4/1

N2 - Autophagy is the principal catabolic response to nutrient starvation and is necessary to clear dysfunctional or damaged organelles, but excessive autophagy can be cytotoxic or cytostatic and contributes to cell death. Depending on the abundance of enzymes involved in molecule biosynthesis, cells can be dependent on uptake of exogenous nutrients to provide these molecules. Argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1) is a key enzyme in arginine biosynthesis, and its abundance is reduced in many solid tumors,making them sensitive to external arginine depletion. We demonstrated that prolonged arginine starvation by exposure to ADI-PEG20 (pegylated arginine deiminase) induced autophagy-dependent death of ASS1-deficient breast cancer cells, because these cells are arginine auxotrophs (dependent on uptake of extracellular arginine). Indeed, these breast cancer cells died in culture when exposed to ADI-PEG20 or cultured in the absence of arginine. Arginine starvation induced mitochondrial oxidative stress, which impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics and integrity. Furthermore, arginine starvation killed breast cancer cells in vivo and in vitro only if they were autophagy-competent. Thus, a key mechanism underlying the lethality induced by prolonged arginine starvationwas the cytotoxic autophagy that occurred in response tomitochondrial damage. Last, ASS1 was either low in abundance or absent in more than 60% of 149 random breast cancer biosamples, suggesting that patients with such tumors could be candidates for arginine starvation therapy.

AB - Autophagy is the principal catabolic response to nutrient starvation and is necessary to clear dysfunctional or damaged organelles, but excessive autophagy can be cytotoxic or cytostatic and contributes to cell death. Depending on the abundance of enzymes involved in molecule biosynthesis, cells can be dependent on uptake of exogenous nutrients to provide these molecules. Argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1) is a key enzyme in arginine biosynthesis, and its abundance is reduced in many solid tumors,making them sensitive to external arginine depletion. We demonstrated that prolonged arginine starvation by exposure to ADI-PEG20 (pegylated arginine deiminase) induced autophagy-dependent death of ASS1-deficient breast cancer cells, because these cells are arginine auxotrophs (dependent on uptake of extracellular arginine). Indeed, these breast cancer cells died in culture when exposed to ADI-PEG20 or cultured in the absence of arginine. Arginine starvation induced mitochondrial oxidative stress, which impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics and integrity. Furthermore, arginine starvation killed breast cancer cells in vivo and in vitro only if they were autophagy-competent. Thus, a key mechanism underlying the lethality induced by prolonged arginine starvationwas the cytotoxic autophagy that occurred in response tomitochondrial damage. Last, ASS1 was either low in abundance or absent in more than 60% of 149 random breast cancer biosamples, suggesting that patients with such tumors could be candidates for arginine starvation therapy.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904421955&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84904421955&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1126/scisignal.2004761

DO - 10.1126/scisignal.2004761

M3 - Article

VL - 7

JO - Science Signaling

JF - Science Signaling

SN - 1937-9145

IS - 319

ER -