The glucose analogue 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) impedes cancer progression in animal models and is currently being assessed as an anticancer therapy, yet the mode of action of this drug of high clinical significance has not been fully delineated. In an attempt to better characterize its pharmacodynamics, an integrative UPLC-Q-Exactive-based joint metabolomic and lipidomic approach was undertaken to evaluate the metabolic perturbations induced by this drug in human HaCaT keratinocyte cells. R-XCMS data processing and subsequent multivariate pattern recognition, metabolites identification, and pathway analyses identified eight metabolites that were most significantly changed upon a 3 h 2-DG exposure. Most of these dysregulated features were emphasized in the course of lipidomic profiling and could be identified as ceramide and glucosylceramide derivatives, consistently with their involvement in cell death programming. Even though metabolomic analyses did not generally afford such clear-cut dysregulations, some alterations in phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine derivatives could be highlighted as well. Overall, these results support the adequacy of the proposed analytical workflow and might contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the promising effects of 2-DG.
Keywords: 2-DG; UHPLC−MS; ceramides; galactosylglycerol; glycosylceramides; lipidomics; metabolomics.