Abstract
Fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (F2,6BP) is a shunt product of glycolysis that allosterically activates 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase (PFK-1) resulting in increased glucose uptake and glycolytic flux to lactate. The F2,6BP concentration is dictated by four bifunctional 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatases (PFKFB1-4) with distinct kinase:phosphatase activities. PFKFB4 is over-expressed in human cancers, induced by hypoxia and required for survival and growth of several cancer cell lines. Although PFKFB4 appears to be a rational target for anti-neoplastic drug development, it is not clear whether its kinase or phosphatase activity is required for cancer cell survival. In this study, we demonstrate that recombinant human PFKFB4 kinase activity is 4.3-fold greater than its phosphatase activity, siRNA and genomic deletion of PFKFB4 decrease F2,6BP, PFKFB4 over-expression increases F2,6BP and selective PFKFB4 inhibition in vivo markedly reduces F2,6BP, glucose uptake and ATP. Last, we find that PFKFB4 is required for cancer cell survival during the metabolic response to hypoxia, presumably to enable glycolytic production of ATP when the electron transport chain is not fully operational. Taken together, our data indicate that the PFKFB4 expressed in multiple transformed cells and tumors functions to synthesize F2,6BP. We predict that pharmacological disruption of the PFKFB4 kinase domain may have clinical utility for the treatment of human cancers.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-30-2014
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.2213
Funding Information
We thank the following funding agencies for their support of these studies: ST, NCI 1R01CA140991 and American Cancer Society RSG-10-021-01-CNE; and JC, NCI 1R01CA149438 and NCRR CoBRE 1P30GM106396.
Repository Citation
Chesney, Jason; Clark, Jennifer; Klarer, Alden C.; Imbert-Fernandez, Yoannis; Lane, Andrew N.; and Telang, Sucheta, "Fructose-2,6-Bisphosphate Synthesis by 6-Phosphofructo-2-Kinase/Fructose-2,6-Bisphosphatase 4 (PFKFB4) Is Required for the Glycolytic Response to Hypoxia and Tumor Growth" (2014). Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications. 49.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/markey_facpub/49
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Oncotarget, v. 5, no. 16, p. 6670-6686.
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