VHL mutation drives human clear cell renal cell carcinoma progression through PI3K/AKT-dependent cholesteryl ester accumulation

Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved..

BACKGROUND: Cholesteryl ester (CE) accumulation in intracellular lipid droplets (LDs) is an essential signature of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), but its molecular mechanism and pathological significance remain elusive.

METHODS: Enabled by the label-free Raman spectromicroscopy, which integrated stimulated Raman scattering microscopy with confocal Raman spectroscopy on the same platform, we quantitatively analyzed LD distribution and composition at the single cell level in intact ccRCC cell and tissue specimens in situ without any processing or exogenous labeling. Since we found that commonly used ccRCC cell lines actually did not show the CE-rich signature, primary cancer cells were isolated from human tissues to retain the lipid signature of ccRCC with CE level as high as the original tissue, which offers a preferable cell model for the study of cholesterol metabolism in ccRCC. Moreover, we established a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse model that retained the CE-rich phenotype of human ccRCC.

FINDINGS: Surprisingly, our results revealed that CE accumulation was induced by tumor suppressor VHL mutation, the most common mutation of ccRCC. Moreover, VHL mutation was found to promote CE accumulation by upregulating HIFα and subsequent PI3K/AKT/mTOR/SREBPs pathway. Inspiringly, inhibition of cholesterol esterification remarkably suppressed ccRCC aggressiveness in vitro and in vivo with negligible toxicity, through the reduced membrane cholesterol-mediated downregulations of integrin and MAPK signaling pathways.

INTERPRETATION: Collectively, our study improves current understanding of the role of CE accumulation in ccRCC and opens up new opportunities for treatment.

FUNDING: This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U23B2046 and No. 62027824), National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2023YFC2415500), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. YWF-22-L-547), PKU-Baidu Fund (No. 2020BD033), Peking University First Hospital Scientific and Technological Achievement Transformation Incubation Guidance Fund (No. 2022CX02), and Beijing Municipal Health Commission (No. 2020-2Z-40713).

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:103

Enthalten in:

EBioMedicine - 103(2024) vom: 01. Apr., Seite 105070

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Zhang, Shuo [VerfasserIn]
Fang, Tinghe [VerfasserIn]
He, Yexuan [VerfasserIn]
Feng, Weichen [VerfasserIn]
Yu, Zhuoyang [VerfasserIn]
Zheng, Yaoyao [VerfasserIn]
Zhang, Chi [VerfasserIn]
Hu, Shuai [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Zhuojun [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Jia [VerfasserIn]
Yu, Jian [VerfasserIn]
Zhang, Han [VerfasserIn]
He, Anbang [VerfasserIn]
Gong, Yanqing [VerfasserIn]
He, Zhisong [VerfasserIn]
Yang, Kaiwei [VerfasserIn]
Xi, Zhijun [VerfasserIn]
Yu, Wei [VerfasserIn]
Zhou, Liqun [VerfasserIn]
Yao, Lin [VerfasserIn]
Yue, Shuhua [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Cholesterol metabolism
Clear cell renal cell carcinoma
Journal Article
Raman spectromicroscopy
Stimulated Raman scattering microscopy
VHL mutation

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 10.04.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status Publisher

doi:

10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105070

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM370542711