Development and progression of cancer is accompanied by marked changes in the expression and activity of enzymes involved in the cellular homeostasis of fatty acids. One class of enzymes that play a particularly important role in this process are the acetyl-CoA carboxylases (ACC). ACCs produce malonylCoA, an intermediate metabolite that functions as substrate for fatty acid synthesis and as negative regulator of fatty acid oxidation. Here, using the potent ACC inhibitor soraphen A, a macrocyclic polyketide from myxobacteria, we show that ACC activity in cancer cells is essential for proliferation and survival. Even at nanomolar concentrations, soraphen A can block fatty acid synthesis and stimulate fatty acid oxidation in LNCaP and PC-3M prostate cancer cells. As a result, the phospholipid content of cancer cells decreased, and cells stopped proliferating and ultimately died. LNCaP cells predominantly died through apoptosis, whereas PC-3M cells showed signs of autophagy. Supplementation of the culture medium with exogenous palmitic acid completely abolished the effects of soraphen A and rescued the cells from cell death. Interestingly, when added to cultures of premalignant BPH-1 cells, soraphen A only slightly affected cell proliferation and did not induce cell death. Together, these findings indicate that cancer cells have become dependent on ACC activity to provide the cell with a sufficient supply of fatty acids to permit proliferation and survival, introducing the concept of using small-molecule ACC inhibitors as therapeutic agents for cancer. [Cancer Res 2007;67(17):8180-7]

Aggressive cancer cells typically show a high rate of energyconsuming anabolic processes driving the synthesis of lipids, proteins, and DNA. Here, we took advantage of the ability of the cell-permeable nucleoside 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide (AICA) riboside to increase the intracellular levels of AICA ribotide, an AMP analogue, mimicking a low energy status of the cell. Treatment of cancer cells with AICA riboside impeded lipogenesis, decreased protein translation, and blocked DNA synthesis. Cells treated with AICA riboside stopped proliferating and lost their invasive properties and their ability to form colonies. When administered in vivo, AICA riboside attenuated the growth of MDA-MB-231 tumors in nude mice. These findings point toward a central tie between energy, anabolism, and cancer and suggest that the cellular energy sensing machinery in cancer cells is an exploitable target for cancer prevention and/or therapy. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(6): 2441-8)

Because of its ability to mimic a low energy status of the cell, the cell-permeable nucleoside 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide (AICA) riboside was proposed as an antineoplastic agent switching off major energy-consuming processes associated with the malignant phenotype (lipid production, DNA synthesis, cell proliferation, cell migration, etc.). Key to the antineoplastic action of AICA riboside is its conversion to ZMP, an AMP mimetic that at high concentrations activates the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Here, in an attempt to increase the efficacy of AICA riboside, we pretreated cancer cells with methotrexate, an antimetabolite blocking the metabolism of ZMP. Methotrexate enhanced the AICA ribosideinduced accumulation of ZMP and led to a decrease in the levels of ATP, which functions as an intrasteric inhibitor of AMPK. Consequently, methotrexate markedly sensitized AMPK for activation by AICA riboside and potentiated the inhibitory effects of AICA riboside on tumor-associated processes. As cotreatment elicited antiproliferative effects already at concentrations of compounds that were only marginally effective when used alone, our findings on the cooperation between methotrexate and AICA riboside provide new opportunities both for the application of classic antimetabolic chemotherapeutics, such as methotrexate, and for the exploitation of the energy-sensing machinery as a target for cancer intervention. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(9):2211 -7]

SREBPs are synthesized as 125-kDa inactive precursor proteins, and immediately upon their synthesis they are inserted into the membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum where they form tight complexes with an escort protein known as the SREBP cleavage-activating protein (SCAP). SCAP plays a pivotal role in the control of SREBP signaling. In fact, SCAP does not only bind SREBP but, through its amino-terminal sterolsensing domain, it also interacts with a retention protein complex consisting of at least two endoplasmic reticulum proteins (designated insulin-induced gene 1 and 2; Insig 1 and 2) that serve to retain the SREBP⅐SCAP complex into the membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum. In the "classical" SREBP activation pathway, a decrease in the intracellular concentration of sterols changes the conformation of the sterol-sensing part of SCAP, weakens its interaction with the retention proteins, and allows translocation of the SREBP⅐SCAP complex to the Golgi apparatus where SREBP is proteolytically cleaved and activated. The active 68-kDa SREBP fragment migrates to the nucleus where it increases the transcription of a large set of sterol-responsive element (SRE) containing genes encoding lipogenic enzymes belonging to the pathways of fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis (1-7).Our studies on the mechanisms by which androgens provoke a coordinated activation of lipogenic pathways in androgenresponsive prostate tumor lines have suggested an alternative pathway of SREBP activation in which androgens change the expression rather than the conformation of SCAP (8,9). In this pathway, increased expression of SCAP shifts the balance between SCAP and its retention proteins and favors translocation of the SREBP⅐SCAP complex to the Golgi apparatus. Evidence for the existence of this pathway was derived from several observations (9). 1) In two independent prostate tumor lines (LNCaP and MDA-PCa-2a) androgens cause major changes in the expression of SCAP both at the mRNA and at the protein level, whereas no or only minor changes were observed for other critical components of the SREBP pathway (the SREBP precursor proteins SREBP-1a, -1c, and -2; the site 1 and site 2 proteases responsible for SREBP cleavage).2) The observed increase in SCAP expression was shown to be a cause rather than a consequence of SREBP activation. Induction of SCAP expression coincided with nuclear translocation of SREBP but

The Hp gene may play a role in susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease. Its implication in other immune diseases underscores the common pathways between these diseases. Experimental models of colitis showed that Hp has a protective role in inflammatory colitis, most likely by inhibiting the production of Th1 and Th17 cytokines.