IDH2 stabilizes HIF-1α-induced metabolic reprogramming and promotes chemoresistance in urothelial cancer.
1. EMBO J. 2023 Feb 15;42(4):e110620. doi: 10.15252/embj.2022110620. Epub 2023 Jan 13. IDH2 stabilizes HIF-1α-induced metabolic reprogramming and promotes chemoresistance in urothelial cancer. Shigeta K(1), Hasegawa M(2), Hishiki T(3)(4), Naito Y(3), Baba Y(1), Mikami S(5), Matsumoto K(1), Mizuno R(1), Miyajima A(2), Kikuchi E(1)(6), Saya H(3)(7), Kosaka T(1), Oya M(1). Author information: (1)Department of Urology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. (2)Department of Urology, Tokai University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. (3)Department of Clinical and Translational Research center, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. (4)Department of Biochemistry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. (5)Division of Pathology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. (6)Department of Urology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan. (7)Division of Gene Regulation, Institute for Advanced Medical Research, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. Drug resistance contributes to poor therapeutic response in urothelial carcinoma (UC). Metabolomic analysis suggested metabolic reprogramming in gemcitabine-resistant urothelial carcinoma cells, whereby increased aerobic glycolysis and metabolic stimulation of the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) promoted pyrimidine biosynthesis to increase the production of the gemcitabine competitor deoxycytidine triphosphate (dCTP) that diminishes its therapeutic effect. Furthermore, we observed that gain-of-function of isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2) induced reductive glutamine metabolism to stabilize Hif-1α expression and consequently stimulate aerobic glycolysis and PPP bypass in gemcitabine-resistant UC cells. Interestingly, IDH2-mediated metabolic reprogramming also caused cross resistance to CDDP, by elevating the antioxidant defense via increased NADPH and glutathione production. Downregulation or pharmacological suppression of IDH2 restored chemosensitivity. Since the expression of key metabolic enzymes, such as TIGAR, TKT, and CTPS1, were affected by IDH2-mediated metabolic reprogramming and related to poor prognosis in patients, IDH2 might become a new therapeutic target for restoring chemosensitivity in chemo-resistant urothelial carcinoma. © 2023 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY NC ND 4.0 license. DOI: 10.15252/embj.2022110620 PMCID: PMC9929641 PMID: 36637036 [Indexed for MEDLINE]