Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is an extremely lethal cancer that rapidly metastasizes. Although the molecular attributes of IBC have been described, little is known about the underlying metabolic features of the disease. Using a variety of metabolic assays, including (13)C tracer experiments, we found that SUM149 cells, the primary in vitro model of IBC, exhibit metabolic abnormalities that distinguish them from other breast cancer cells, including elevated levels of N-acetylaspartate, a metabolite primarily associated with neuronal disorders and gliomas. Here we provide the first evidence of N-acetylaspartate in breast cancer. We also report that the oncogene RhoC, a driver of metastatic potential, modulates glutamine and N-acetylaspartate metabolism in IBC cells in vitro, revealing a novel role for RhoC as a regulator of tumor cell metabolism that extends beyond its well known role in cytoskeletal rearrangement.
Keywords: N-acetylaspartate; Rho (Rho GTPase); breast cancer; glutamine; hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF); tumor metabolism.
© 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.