HMGCS2 Mediation of Ketone Levels Affects Sorafenib Treatment Efficacy in Liver Cancer Cells

Fat Moon Suk, Chien Ying Wu, Wan Chun Chiu, Chia Ying Chien, Tzu Lang Chen, Yi Jen Liao

研究成果: 雜誌貢獻文章同行評審

4 引文 斯高帕斯(Scopus)

摘要

Primary liver cancer is the fifth leading death of cancers in men, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for approximately 90% of all primary liver cancer cases. Sorafenib is a first-line drug for advanced-stage HCC patients. Sorafenib is a multi-target kinase inhibitor that blocks tumor cell proliferation and angiogenesis. Despite sorafenib treatment extending survival, some patients experience side effects, and sorafenib resistance does occur. 3-Hydroxymethyl glutaryl-CoA synthase 2 (HMGCS2) is the rate-limiting enzyme for ketogenesis, which synthesizes the ketone bodies, β-hydroxybutyrate (β-HB) and acetoacetate (AcAc). β-HB is the most abundant ketone body which is present in a 4:1 ratio compared to AcAc. Recently, ketone body treatment was found to have therapeutic effects against many cancers by causing metabolic alternations and cancer cell apoptosis. Our previous publication showed that HMGCS2 downregulation-mediated ketone body reduction promoted HCC clinicopathological progression through regulating c-Myc/cyclin D1 and caspase-dependent signaling. However, whether HMGCS2-regulated ketone body production alters the sensitivity of human HCC to sorafenib treatment remains unclear. In this study, we showed that HMGCS2 downregulation enhanced the proliferative ability and attenuated the cytotoxic effects of sorafenib by activating expressions of phosphorylated (p)-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), p-P38, and p-AKT. In contrast, HMGCS2 overexpression decreased cell proliferation and enhanced the cytotoxic effects of sorafenib in HCC cells by inhibiting ERK activation. Furthermore, we showed that knockdown HMGCS2 exhibited the potential migratory ability, as well as decreasing zonula occludens protein (ZO)-1 and increasing c-Myc expression in both sorafenib-treated Huh7 and HepG2 cells. Although HMGCS2 overexpression did not alter the migratory effect, expressions of ZO-1, c-Myc, and N-cadherin decreased in sorafenib-treated HMGCS2-overexpressing HCC cells. Finally, we investigated whether ketone treatment influences sorafenib sensitivity. We showed that β-HB pretreatment decreased cell proliferation and enhanced antiproliferative effect of sorafenib in both Huh7 and HepG2 cells. In conclusion, this study defined the impacts of HMGCS2 expression and ketone body treatment on influencing the sorafenib sensitivity of liver cancer cells.
原文英語
文章編號8015
期刊Molecules
27
發行號22
DOIs
出版狀態已發佈 - 11月 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • 分析化學
  • 化學(雜項)
  • 分子醫學
  • 藥學科學
  • 藥物發現
  • 物理與理論化學
  • 有機化學

指紋

深入研究「HMGCS2 Mediation of Ketone Levels Affects Sorafenib Treatment Efficacy in Liver Cancer Cells」主題。共同形成了獨特的指紋。

引用此