Abstract
Fatty acid synthase (FASN) and ATP-citrate lyase, key enzymes of de novo lipogenesis, are significantly upregulated and activated in many cancers and portend poor prognosis. Even though the role of lipogenesis in providing proliferative and survival advantages to cancer cells has been described, the impact of aberrant activation of lipogenic enzymes on cancer progression remains unknown. In this study, we found that elevated expression of FASN is associated with advanced stages of colorectal cancer (CRC) and liver metastasis, suggesting that it may play a role in progression of CRC to metastatic disease. Targeted inhibition of lipogenic enzymes abolished expression of CD44, a transmembrane protein associated with metastases in several cancers including CRC. In addition, inhibition of lipogenic enzymes and reduced expression of CD44 attenuated the activation of MET, Akt, FAK, and paxillin, which are known to regulate adhesion, migration, and invasion. These changes were consistent with an observed decrease in migration and adhesion of CRC cells in functional assays and with reorganization of actin cytoskeleton upon FASN inhibition. Despite the modest effect of FASN inhibition on tumor growth in xenografts, attenuation of lipogenesis completely abolished establishment of hepatic metastasis and formation of secondary metastasis. Together, our findings suggest that targeting de novo lipogenesis may be a potential treatment strategy for advanced CRC.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-15-2012
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-4057
Funding Information
This work was supported by P20CA1530343 (GI SPORE; B.M. Evers), GM50388 and P20RR021954 (A.J. Morris).
Related Content
Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Research Online (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/).
Repository Citation
Zaytseva, Yekaterina Y.; Rychahou, Piotr G.; Gulhati, Pat; Elliott, Victoria Allison; Mustain, William Conan; O'Connor, Kathleen; Morris, Andrew J.; Sunkara, Manjula; Weiss, Heidi L.; Lee, Eun Young; and Evers, B. Mark, "Inhibition of Fatty Acid Synthase Attenuates CD44-Associated Signaling and Reduces Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer" (2012). Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications. 122.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/markey_facpub/122
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Cancer Research, v. 72, issue 6, p. 1504-1517.
© 2012 American Association for Cancer Research.
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The document available for download is the authors' post-peer-review final draft of the article.