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Kim DH, Kim JS, Mok CS, Chang EH, Choi J, Lim J, Kim CH, Park AR, Bae YJ, Koo BS, Lee HC. dTMP imbalance through thymidylate 5'-phosphohydrolase activity induces apoptosis in triple-negative breast cancers. Sci Rep 2022; 12:20027. [PMID: 36414668 PMCID: PMC9681768 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24706-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Immunotherapy has a number of advantages over traditional anti-tumor therapy but can cause severe adverse reactions due to an overactive immune system. In contrast, a novel metabolic treatment approach can induce metabolic vulnerability through multiple cancer cell targets. Here, we show a therapeutic effect by inducing nucleotide imbalance and apoptosis in triple negative breast cancer cells (TNBC), by treating with cytosolic thymidylate 5'-phosphohydrolase (CT). We show that a sustained consumption of dTMP by CT could induce dNTP imbalance, leading to apoptosis as tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates were depleted to mitigate this imbalance. These cytotoxic effects appeared to be different, depending on substrate specificity of the 5' nucleotide or metabolic dependency of the cancer cell lines. Using representative TNBC cell lines, we reveal how the TNBC cells were affected by CT-transfection through extracellular acidification rate (ECAR)/oxygen consumption rate (OCR) analysis and differential transcription/expression levels. We suggest a novel approach for treating refractory TNBC by an mRNA drug that can exploit metabolic dependencies to exacerbate cell metabolic vulnerability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dae-Ho Kim
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea ,grid.251916.80000 0004 0532 3933Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea ,grid.251916.80000 0004 0532 3933Department of Otolaryngology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea
| | - Jin-Sook Kim
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea
| | - Chang-Soo Mok
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea ,grid.255168.d0000 0001 0671 5021Department of Life Science, Dongguk University Biomedi Campus, Gyeonggi-do, 10326 Republic of Korea
| | - En-Hyung Chang
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea
| | - Jiwon Choi
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea
| | - Junsub Lim
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea
| | - Chul-Ho Kim
- grid.251916.80000 0004 0532 3933Department of Otolaryngology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea
| | | | | | - Bong-Seong Koo
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea
| | - Hyeon-Cheol Lee
- Research Center, BPgene Co, Ltd, Seoul, 03127 Republic of Korea
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Fermentative production of thymidine by a metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strain. Appl Environ Microbiol 2009; 75:2423-32. [PMID: 19251902 DOI: 10.1128/aem.02328-08] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Thymidine is an important precursor in the production of various antiviral drugs, including azidothymidine for the treatment of AIDS. Since thymidine-containing nucleotides are synthesized only by the de novo pathway during DNA synthesis, it is not easy to produce a large amount of thymidine biologically. In order to develop a host strain to produce thymidine, thymidine phosphorylase, thymidine kinase, and uridine phosphorylase genes were deleted from an Escherichia coli BL21 strain to develop BLdtu. Since the genes coding for the enzymes related to the nucleotide salvage pathway were disrupted, BLdtu was unable to utilize thymidine or thymine, and thymidine degradation activity was completely abrogated. We additionally expressed T4 thymidylate synthase, T4 nucleotide diphosphate reductase, bacteriophage PBS2 TMP phosphohydrolase, E. coli dCTP deaminase, and E. coli uridine kinase in the BLdtu strain to develop a thymidine-producing strain (BLdtu24). BLdtu24 produced 649.3 mg liter(-1) of thymidine in a 7-liter batch fermenter for 24 h, and neither thymine nor uridine was detected. However, the dUTP/dTTP ratio was increased in BLdtu24, which could lead to increased double-strand breakages and eventually to cell deaths during fermentation. To enhance thymidine production and to prevent cell deaths during fermentation, we disrupted a gene (encoding uracil-DNA N-glycosylase) involved in DNA excision repair to suppress the consumption of dTTP and developed BLdtug24. Compared with the thymidine production in BLdtu24, the thymidine production in BLdtug24 was increased by approximately 1.2-fold (740.3 mg liter(-1)). Here, we show that a thymidine-producing strain with a relatively high yield can be developed using a metabolic engineering approach.
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