Cancer Letters 2015-04-28

Anti-cancer fatty-acid derivative induces autophagic cell death through modulation of PKM isoform expression profile mediated by bcr-abl in chronic myeloid leukemia.

Haruka Shinohara, Kohei Taniguchi, Minami Kumazaki, Nami Yamada, Yuko Ito, Yoshinori Otsuki, Bunji Uno, Fumihiko Hayakawa, Yosuke Minami, Tomoki Naoe, Yukihiro Akao

Index: Cancer Lett. 360(1) , 28-38, (2015)

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Abstract

The fusion gene bcr-abl develops chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and stimulates PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling, leading to impaired autophagy. PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling also plays an important role in cell metabolism. The Warburg effect is a well-recognized hallmark of cancer energy metabolism, and is regulated by the mTOR/c-Myc/hnRNP/PKM signaling cascade. To develop a new strategy for the treatment of CML, we investigated the associations among bcr-abl, the cascade related to cancer energy metabolism, and autophagy induced by a fatty-acid derivative that we had previously reported as being an autophagy inducer. Here we report that a fatty-acid derivative, AIC-47, induced transcriptional repression of the bcr-abl gene and modulated the expression profile of PKM isoforms, resulting in autophagic cell death. We show that c-Myc functioned as a transcriptional activator of bcr-abl, and regulated the hnRNP/PKM cascade. AIC-47, acting through the PPARγ/β-catenin pathway, induced down-regulation of c-Myc, leading to the disruption of the bcr-abl/mTOR/hnRNP signaling pathway, and switching of the expression of PKM2 to PKM1. This switching caused autophagic cell death through an increase in the ROS level. Our findings suggest that AIC-47 induced autophagic cell death through the PPARγ/β-catenin/bcr-abl/mTOR/hnRNP/PKM cascade. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.