1. Academic Validation
  2. C/EBPa confers dependence to fatty acid anabolic pathways and vulnerability to lipid oxidative stress-induced ferroptosis in FLT3-mutant leukemia

C/EBPa confers dependence to fatty acid anabolic pathways and vulnerability to lipid oxidative stress-induced ferroptosis in FLT3-mutant leukemia

  • Cancer Discov. 2023 Apr 3;CD-22-0411. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-22-0411.
Marie Sabatier 1 Rudy Birsen 2 Laura Lauture 1 Sarah Mouche 3 Paolo Angelino 4 Jonas Dehairs 5 Lea Goupille 1 Ismael Boussaid 2 Mael Heiblig 6 Emeline Boet 1 Ambrine Sahal 1 Estelle Saland 7 Juliana C Santos 8 Marc Armengol 9 Miranda Fernandez-Serrano 9 Thomas Farge 10 Guillaume Cognet 11 Federico Simonetta 3 Corentin Pignon 1 Antoine Graffeuil 1 Celine Mazzotti 1 Herve Avet-Loiseau 12 Oceane Delos 1 Justine Bertrand-Michel 13 Amelie Chedru 14 Vilma Dembitz 15 Paolo Gallipoli 15 Natasha S Anstee 16 Sun Loo 16 Andrew H Wei 17 Martin Carroll 18 Armelle Goubard 19 Remy Castellano 20 Yves Collette 20 Francois Vergez 21 Veronique Mansat-De Mas 21 Sarah Bertoli 22 Suzanne Tavitian 23 Muriel Picard 24 Christian Recher 25 Nathalie Bourges-Abella 26 Fanny Granat 1 Olivier Kosmider 27 Pierre Sujobert 28 Benoit Colsch 14 Carine Joffre 29 Lucille Stuani 1 Johannes V Swinnen 30 Herve Guillou 31 Gael Roue 9 Nawad Hakim 1 Anne S Dejean 32 Petros Tsantoulis 33 Clement Larrue 7 Didier Bouscary 2 Jerome Tamburini 2 Jean-Emmanuel Sarry 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Inserm and Universite de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
  • 2 Institut Cochin, Paris, France.
  • 3 University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • 4 SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland.
  • 5 KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
  • 6 Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon (CRCL), Oullins, France.
  • 7 INSERM UMR1037, Toulouse, France.
  • 8 Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
  • 9 Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Badalona, Spain.
  • 10 CHU - Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
  • 11 Inserm and Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
  • 12 University Hospital, Toulouse, France, Toulouse, France.
  • 13 INSA, Toulouse, France.
  • 14 CEA Saclay, France.
  • 15 Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
  • 16 Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
  • 17 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
  • 18 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
  • 19 University of Marseille, Marseille, France.
  • 20 INSERM U1068, Marseille, France.
  • 21 Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
  • 22 INSERM, Toulouse, France.
  • 23 IUCT-O, Toulouse, France.
  • 24 CHU de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
  • 25 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse, Institut Universitaire du Cancer Toulouse Oncopole, TOULOUSE, France.
  • 26 École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
  • 27 Institut Cochin, Inserm U 1016, Paris, France.
  • 28 Université Lyon 1, Pierre Bénite, 69395, France.
  • 29 INSERM, TOULOUSE, France.
  • 30 KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
  • 31 INRAe, Toulouse, France.
  • 32 INFINITY - Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, Toulouse, France.
  • 33 University Hospital of Geneva, Genève, Switzerland.
Abstract

While transcription factor C/AAT-enhancer binding protein a (C/EBPa) is critical for normal and leukemic differentiation, its role on cell and metabolic homeostasis is largely unknown in Cancer. Here, multi-omics analyses uncovered a coordinated activation of C/EBPa and Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) that increased lipid anabolism in vivo and in patients with FLT3-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Mechanistically, C/EBPa regulated FASN-SCD axis to promote fatty acid (FA) biosynthesis and desaturation. We further demonstrated that FLT3 or C/EBPa inactivation decreased mono-unsaturated FA incorporation to membrane Phospholipids through SCD downregulation. Consequently, SCD inhibition enhanced susceptibility to lipid redox stress that was exploited by combining FLT3 and Glutathione Peroxidase 4 inhibition to trigger lipid oxidative stress, enhancing ferroptotic death of FLT3-mutant AML cells. Altogether, our study reveals a C/EBPa function in lipid homeostasis and adaptation to redox stress, and a previously unreported vulnerability of FLT3-mutant AML to Ferroptosis with promising therapeutic application.

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