Lamb, R, Ozsvari, B, Bonuccelli, G, Smith, D, Pestell, R, Martinez-Outschoorn, U, Clarke, R, Sotgia, Federica and Lisanti, MP 2015, 'Dissecting tumor metabolic heterogeneity : Telomerase and large cell size metabolically define a sub-population of stem-like, mitochondrial-rich, cancer cells' , Oncotarget, 6 (26) , pp. 21892-21905.
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Abstract
Tumor cell metabolic heterogeneity is thought to contribute to tumor recurrence, distant metastasis and chemo-resistance in cancer patients, driving poor clinical outcome. To better understand tumor metabolic heterogeneity, here we used the MCF7 breast cancer line as a model system to metabolically fractionate a cancer cell population. First, MCF7 cells were stably transfected with an hTERT-promoter construct driving GFP expression, as a surrogate marker of telomerase transcriptional activity. To enrich for immortal stem-like cancer cells, MCF7 cells expressing the highest levels of GFP (top 5%) were then isolated by FACS analysis. Notably, hTERT-GFP(+) MCF7 cells were significantly more efficient at forming mammospheres (i.e., stem cell activity) and showed increased mitochondrial mass and mitochondrial functional activity, all relative to hTERT-GFP(-) cells. Unbiased proteomics analysis of hTERT-GFP(+) MCF7 cells directly demonstrated the over-expression of 33 key mitochondrial proteins, 17 glycolytic enzymes, 34 ribosome-related proteins and 17 EMT markers, consistent with an anabolic cancer stem-like phenotype. Interestingly, MT-CO2 (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2; Complex IV) expression was increased by >20-fold. As MT-CO2 is encoded by mt-DNA, this finding is indicative of increased mitochondrial biogenesis in hTERT-GFP(+) MCF7 cells. Importantly, most of these candidate biomarkers were transcriptionally over-expressed in human breast cancer epithelial cells in vivo. Similar results were obtained using cell size (forward/side scatter) to fractionate MCF7 cells. Larger stem-like cells also showed increased hTERT-GFP levels, as well as increased mitochondrial mass and function. Thus, this simple and rapid approach for the enrichment of immortal anabolic stem-like cancer cells will allow us and others to develop new prognostic biomarkers and novel anti-cancer therapies, by specifically and selectively targeting this metabolic sub-population of aggressive cancer cells. Based on our proteomics and functional analysis, FDA-approved inhibitors of protein synthesis and/or mitochondrial biogenesis, may represent novel treatment options for targeting these anabolic stem-like cancer cells.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Schools: | Schools > School of Environment and Life Sciences > Biomedical Research Centre |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Oncotarget |
| Publisher: | Impact Journals, LLC |
| Related URLs: | |
| Funders: | Funder not known |
| Depositing User: | F Sotgia |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Jun 2016 08:09 |
| Last Modified: | 31 Oct 2018 21:59 |
| URI: | http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/39278 |
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