Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C1864663 (HCC)
 2,985 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Notwithstanding the numerous drugs available for liver cancer, emerging evidence suggests that chemotherapeutic resistance is a significant issue. HGF and its receptor MET play critical roles in liver carcinogenesis and metastasis, mainly dependent on the activity of receptor tyrosine kinase. However, for unknown reasons, all HGF-MET kinase activity-targeted drugs have failed or have been suspended in clinical trials thus far. Macroautophagy/autophagy is a protective 'self-eating' process for resisting metabolic stress by recycling obsolete components, whereas the impact of autophagy-mediated reprogrammed metabolism on therapeutic resistance is largely unclear, especially in liver cancer. In the present study, we first observed that HGF stimulus facilitated the Warburg effect and glutaminolysis to promote biogenesis in multiple liver cancer cells. We then identified the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) and GLS/GLS1 as crucial substrates of HGF-activated MET kinase; MET-mediated phosphorylation inhibits PDHC activity but activates GLS to promote cancer cell metabolism and biogenesis. We further found that the key residues of kinase activity in MET (Y1234/1235) also constitute a conserved LC3-interacting region motif (Y1234-Y1235-x-V1237). Therefore, on inhibiting HGF-mediated MET kinase activation, Y1234/1235-dephosphorylated MET induced autophagy to maintain biogenesis for cancer cell survival. Moreover, we verified that Y1234/1235-dephosphorylated MET correlated with autophagy in clinical liver cancer. Finally, a combination of MET inhibitor and autophagy suppressor significantly improved the therapeutic efficiency of liver cancer in vitro and in mice. Together, our findings reveal an HGF-MET axis-coordinated functional interaction between tyrosine kinase signaling and autophagy, and establish a MET-autophagy double-targeted strategy to overcome chemotherapeutic resistance in liver cancer. Abbreviations: ALDO: aldolase, fructose-bisphosphate; CQ: chloroquine; DLAT/PDCE2: dihydrolipoamide S-acetyltransferase; EMT: epithelial-mesenchymal transition; ENO: enolase; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; GLS/GLS1: glutaminase; GLUL/GS: glutamine-ammonia ligase; GPI/PGI: glucose-6-phosphate isomerase; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; HGF: hepatocyte growth factor; HK: hexokinase; LDH: lactate dehydrogenase; LIHC: liver hepatocellular carcinoma; LIR: LC3-interacting region; PDH: pyruvate dehydrogenase; PDHA1: pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 alpha 1 subunit; PDHX: pyruvate dehydrogenase complex component X; PFK: phosphofructokinase; PK: pyruvate kinase; RTK: receptor tyrosine kinase; TCGA: The Cancer Genome Atlas.
 ...
PMID:The HGF-MET axis coordinates liver cancer metabolism and autophagy for chemotherapeutic resistance. 3078 11

Alterations in cellular metabolism are one of the characteristics in cancer. They are not only the result of tumor progression but also the cause of cancer initiation. Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4) is a key metabolic enzyme, which regulates cell metabolism by inhibiting pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH). However, the function and regulating mechanism of PDK4 in HCC remain unclear. Here, we found that the expression of PDK4 was significantly decreased in HCC tissues, and its downregulation could predict poor prognosis of HCC patients. Silencing PDK4 significantly facilitated proliferation and migration of HCC cells. Knockdown of PDK4 didn't influence the oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis capacity of HCC cells in vitro. However, knockdown of PDK4 increased expression of key lipogenic enzymes, fatty acid synthase (FASN) and stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), which finally induced lipogenesis. These data suggest that PDK4 inhibits proliferation and migration of HCC cells probably via suppressing lipogenesis.
 ...
PMID:Downregulation of PDK4 Increases Lipogenesis and Associates with Poor Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. 3085 98