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doctoral thesis

Deciphering the Role of LRH-1 in Liver Intermediary Metabolism and Cancer

Xu, Pan  
2016

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Gaining insight into the molecular pathways involved in the development of HCC is hence a prerequisite to design and develop novel and effective therapeutic strategies. Metabolic reprogramming is a universal feature of tumor cells and is characterized by increased glycolysis and diminished oxidative phosphorylation, a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect. More recently, it has become evident that tumor cells heavily rely on gluta-mine metabolism to compensate for the Warburg effect and to replenish the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. However, the molecular mechanisms by which glutamine supports tumor cell metabolism remain largely unexplored. In this thesis, I have established the role of the nuclear receptor LRH-1 as a key regulator in the process of hepatic tumorigenesis. I observed that LRH-1 promotes DEN-induced hepatocellular carcinogenesis (HCC). I demonstrated that LRH-1 facilitates the production of NADPH from glutamine by favoring a non-canonical glutamine pathway that optimizes reductive biosynthesis. Importantly, chronic and acute disrup-tion of LRH-1 also impaired glutamine-induced anaplerosis and α-KG availability, ultimately leading to im-paired mTORC1 signaling to block cell proliferation. Moreover, LRH-1 also coordinates glutamine-dependent asparagine synthesis to protect tumor cell from apoptosis induced by glutamine depletion itself. As a result, gain-of-function of LRH-1 sustained aspar-agine homeostasis upon glutamine-deprivation to promote cell survival. Collectively, these studies unveiled an unexpected role of LRH-1 in cancer intermediary metabolism, and warranted further studies on pharma-cological inhibition of LRH-1 to interfere with hepatocellular carcinogenesis.

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Type
doctoral thesis
DOI
10.5075/epfl-thesis-7369
Author(s)
Xu, Pan  
Advisors
Schoonjans, Kristina  
Jury

Prof. Freddy Radtke (président) ; Prof. Kristina Schoonjans (directeur de thèse) ; Prof. Kei Sakamoto, Prof. Lluis Fajas, Prof. Darius Moradpour (rapporteurs)

Date Issued

2016

Publisher

EPFL

Publisher place

Lausanne

Public defense year

2016-12-09

Thesis number

7369

Total of pages

110

Subjects

cancer metabolism

•

nuclear receptor

•

glutamine

•

mTORC1

•

NADPH

•

asparagine

•

apoptosis

•

hepatocellular carcinoma

EPFL units
UPSCHOONJANS  
Faculty
SV  
School
IBI-SV  
Doctoral School
EDBB  
Available on Infoscience
November 29, 2016
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/131691
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