Reprogramming Glucose Metabolism And Energy Production With A Small Molecule Hjc0152 Suppresses Breast Cancer Development And Progression To Metastasis

Currently there are no targeted therapeutic strategies for estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer (ENBC), which constitutes 30-40% of breast cancer cases and is prone to metastasize and recur. Distant metastasis accounts for 90% of cancer-associated deaths. The majority of deaths from breast cancer are caused by distant metastasis developed in lung, liver, bone, or brain. However, to date it remains a challenge and unmet need to treat existing metastasis and block new metastasis in cancer patients. Dysregulated glucose and energy metabolism is critically involved in the development and progression of various cancers via promoting aberrant cell growth, malignant transformation and metastasis, but the potential role of glucose/energy metabolism in ENBC progression and metastasis has scarcely been explored heretofore, thus representing a key knowledge gap and a potential avenue for anticancer targeting. A number of anticancer metabolic and biogenetic therapies have been developed, yet none of them has progressed to clinical use, due to their limited potency, specificity or drug properties such as toxicity and poor bioavailability. We recently identified a novel small molecule HJC0152 that significantly suppresses ENBC xenograft tumor growth and blocks ER-negative mammary tumor development in mouse models. HJC0152 treatment for 24-72 hours differentially modulates protein expression of HK1, PFK-L, PFKFB2, ENO2, PDH, PDK1, PGAM1 and ALDOA in a time-dependent manner. HJC0152 also regulates the transcription of genes involved in glucose and mitochondrial energy metabolism, including the subunits of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes. Functional assessments of mitochondrial complexes demonstrate that HJC0152 significantly inhibits Complexes IV but increases Complex V (ATP synthase) function, while Complexes I and II function is minimally affected. Migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells are significantly inhibited by HJC0152 treatment. In vivo, HJC0152 administrated either before, concurrent with or after tail vein injection of MDA-MB-231 cells dramatically blocks the development of lung macro- and micro-metastasis in all groups. These results suggest that HJC0152 can specifically reprogram/restore the dysregulated glucose metabolism by inducing specific glycolytic enzyme expression and mitochondrial respiratory chain function, likely via targeting one or more upstream signal molecule(s) that regulates glucose and energy metabolism, thereby suppressing breast cancer progression to metastasis. This work was supported by Grants P50 CA097007, P30DA028821, and R21MH093844 (J.Z.) from the NIH, CPRIT (J.Z.), John Sealy Memorial Endowment Fund (J.Z.), DFI Seed Grants from MD Anderson Cancer Center (Q.S.), and Holden Family Research Grant in Breast Cancer Prevention from the Prevent Cancer Foundation (Q.S). Citation Format: Hao Zou, Na Ye, Hui Pang, Dan Zhang, Ruping Yan, Haijun Chen, Guoshuai Cai, Lili Wang, Zhengduo Yang, Haiying Chen, Grace Xu, Yingchao Zhang, Ritu Arora, Ming Tan, Yongchang Wei, Jia Zhou, Qiang Shen. Reprogramming glucose metabolism and energy production with a small molecule HJC0152 suppresses breast cancer development and progression to metastasis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 329.