Prostate Cancer's Silent Partners: Fibroblasts and Their Influence on Glutamine Metabolism Manipulation

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF)s in the tumour microenvironment (TME) modulate the extracellular matrix, interact with cancer cells, and facilitate communication with infiltrating leukocytes, significantly contributing to cancer progression and therapeutic response. In prostate cancer (PCa), CAFs promote malignancy through metabolic rewiring, cancer stem cell regulation, and therapy resistance. Pre-clinical studies indicate that targeting amino acid metabolism, particularly glutamine (Gln) metabolism, reduces cancer proliferation and stemness. However, most studies lack the context of CAF-cancer interaction, focusing on monocultures. This study assesses the influence of CAFs on PCa growth by manipulating Gln metabolism using colour-labelled PCa cell lines (red) and fibroblast (green) in a co-culture system to evaluate CAFs' effects on PCa cell proliferation and clonogenic potential. CAFs increased the proliferation of hormone-sensitive LNCaP cells, whereas the castration-resistant C4-2 cells were unaffected. However, clonogenic growth increased in both cell lines. Gln deprivation and GLS1 inhibition experiments revealed that the increased growth rate of LNCAP cells was associated with increased dependence on Gln, which was confirmed by proteomic analyses. Tissue analysis of PCa patients revealed elevated GLS1 levels in both the PCa epithelium and stroma, suggesting that GLS1 is a therapeutic target. Moreover, the median overall survival analysis of GLS1 expression in the PCa epithelium and stroma identified a "high-risk" patient group that may benefit from GLS1-targeted therapies. Therefore, GLS1 targeting appears promising in castration-resistant PCa patients with high GLS1 epithelium and low GLS1 stromal expression.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number9275
Pages (from-to)9275
JournalInternational journal of molecular sciences
Volume25
Issue number17
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

WOS 001311279700001
Scopus 85204133264

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • tumour microenvironment, cancer-associated fibroblasts, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, castration-resistant prostate cancer, PCa, RENAL-CELL CARCINOMA, R/BIOCONDUCTOR PACKAGE, TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT, CONTACT INHIBITION, GROWTH, EXPRESSION, DISEASE, CONTRIBUTES, RECURRENCE, CATABOLISM