Yaqing Li, Huixiang Li, Jian Liu, Long Yuan, Dandan Fan, Yali Zhong, Zhenyu Ji, Jahn M. Nesland, Xiaoran Li, Yuan Yuan, Dandan Yu, Mariusz Adam Goscinski, Zhenhe Suo, Mingzhi Zhang, Yasai Ji, Xiaoli Li, Jian-Guo Wen, and Bin Hao
// Yali Zhong 1, 2, 3, 4 , Xiaoli Li 1 , Yasai Ji 1 , Xiaoran Li 3, 4 , Yaqing Li 1 , Dandan Yu 1 , Yuan Yuan 5 , Jian Liu 6 , Huixiang Li 7 , Mingzhi Zhang 1 , Zhenyu Ji 8 , Dandan Fan 8 , Jianguo Wen 9 , Mariusz Adam Goscinski 10 , Long Yuan 11 , Bin Hao 12 , Jahn M Nesland 3, 4 , Zhenhe Suo 1, 3, 4 1 Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China 2 Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China 3 Department of Pathology, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo University Hospital, University of Oslo, Montebello, Oslo, Norway 4 Department of Pathology, Institute for Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 5 Department of Pathology, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China 6 Institute of Health Quarantine, Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine, Beijing, China 7 Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China 8 Henan Academy of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 9 Institute of Clinical Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Henan, China 10 Department of Surgery, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 11 Department of Surgery, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China 12 Department of Urology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China Correspondence to: Zhenhe Suo, email: zhenhes@medisin.uio.no Keywords: PDHA1, glycolysis, stemness, prostate cancer Received: September 30, 2016 Accepted: December 28, 2016 Published: January 05, 2017 ABSTRACT Cells generate adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP), the major currency for energy-consuming reactions, through mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and glycolysis. One of the remarkable features of cancer cells is aerobic glycolysis, also known as the “Warburg Effect”, in which cancer cells rely preferentially on glycolysis instead of mitochondrial OXPHOS as the main energy source even in the presence of high oxygen tension. One of the main players in controlling OXPHOS is the mitochondrial gatekeeperpyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHc) and its major subunit is E1α (PDHA1). To further analyze the function of PDHA1 in cancer cells, it was knock out (KO) in the human prostate cancer cell line LnCap and a stable KO cell line was established. We demonstrated that PDHA1 gene KO significantly decreased mitochondrial OXPHOS and promoted anaerobic glycolysis, accompanied with higher stemness phenotype including resistance to chemotherapy, enhanced migration ability and increased expression of cancer stem cell markers. We also examined PDHA1 protein expression in prostate cancer tissues by immunohistochemistry and observed that reduced PDHA1 protein expression in clinical prostate carcinomas was significantly correlated with poor prognosis. Collectively, our results show that negative PDHA1 gene expressionis associated with significantly higher cell stemness in prostate cancer cells and reduced protein expression of this gene is associated with shorter clinical outcome in prostate cancers.