Computational metabolism modeling predicts risk of distant relapse-free survival in breast cancer patients
Abstract
Aim: Differences in metabolism among breast cancer subtypes suggest that metabolism plays an important role in this disease. Flux balance analysis is used to explore these differences as well as drug response. Materials & methods: Proteomics data from breast tumors were obtained by mass-spectrometry. Flux balance analysis was performed to study metabolic networks. Flux activities from metabolic pathways were calculated and used to build prognostic models. Results: Flux activities of vitamin A, tetrahydrobiopterin and β-alanine metabolism pathways split our population into low- and high-risk patients. Additionally, flux activities of glycolysis and glutamate metabolism split triple negative tumors into low- and high-risk groups. Conclusion: Flux activities summarize flux balance analysis data and can be associated with prognosis in cancer.
References
- 1. . Cancer statistics, 2018. CA Cancer J. Clin. 68(1), 7–30 (2018).
- 2. Functional proteomics outlines the complexity of breast cancer molecular subtypes. Sci. Rep. 7(1), 10100 (2017).
- 3. . Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation. Cell 144(5), 646–674 (2011).
- 4. . The metabolism of carcinoma cells. J. Cancer Res. 9, 148–163 (1925).
- 5. Beyond aerobic glycolysis: transformed cells can engage in glutamine metabolism that exceeds the requirement for protein and nucleotide synthesis. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104(49), 19345–19350 (2007).
- 6. Combined label-free quantitative proteomics and microRNA expression analysis of breast cancer unravel molecular differences with clinical implications. Cancer Res. 75(11), 2243–2253 (2015).
- 7. . What is flux balance analysis? Nat. Biotechnol. 28(3), 245–248 (2010).
- 8. Molecular characterization of breast cancer cell response to metabolic drugs. Oncotarget 9(11), 9645–9660 (2018).
- 9. Shotgun proteomics of archival triple-negative breast cancer samples. Proteomics Clin. Appl. 7(3-4), 283–291 (2013).
- 10. Protein phosphorylation analysis in archival clinical cancer samples by shotgun and targeted proteomics approaches. Mol. Biosyst. 7(8), 2368–2374 (2011).
- 11. The Perseus computational platform for comprehensive analysis of proteomics data. Nat. Methods 13(9), 731–740 (2016).
- 12. Quantitative prediction of cellular metabolism with constraint-based models: the COBRA Toolbox v2.0. Nat. Protoc. 6(9), 1290–1307 (2011).
- 13. A community-driven global reconstruction of human metabolism. Nat. Biotechnol. 31(5), 419–425 (2013).
- 14. A robust and efficient method for estimating enzyme complex abundance and metabolic flux from expression data. Comput. Biol. Chem. 59(Pt B), 98–112 (2015).
- 15. Interpreting expression data with metabolic flux models: predicting Mycobacterium tuberculosis mycolic acid production. PLoS Comput. Biol. e1000489
doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000489 (2009) (Epub ahead of print). - 16. . Genome-scale metabolic modeling elucidates the role of proliferative adaptation in causing the Warbug effect. PLoS Comput. Biol. 7(3), e1002018 (2011).
- 17. . Roadmap for developing and validating therapeutically relevant genomic classifiers. J. Clin. Oncol. 23(29), 7332–7341 (2005).
- 18. . Chronic oxidative stress causes estrogen-independent aggressive phenotype, and epigenetic inactivation of estrogen receptor alpha in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 153(1), 41–56 (2015).
- 19. Mitochondrial dysfunction in some triple-negative breast cancer cell lines: role of mTOR pathway and therapeutic potential. Breast Cancer Res. 16(5), 434 (2014).
- 20. MYC-driven accumulation of 2-hydroxyglutarate is associated with breast cancer prognosis. J. Clin. Invest. 124(1), 398–412 (2014).
- 21. Plasma retinol and prognosis of postmenopausal breast cancer patients. Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 18(1), 42–48 (2009).
- 22. An integrated genomic screen identifies LDHB as an essential gene for triple-negative breast cancer. Cancer Res. 72(22), 5812–5823 (2012).
- 23. . Expression of glutamine metabolism-related proteins according to molecular subtype of breast cancer. Endocr. Relat. Cancer 20(3), 339–348 (2013).
- 24. Glutaminase is essential for the growth of triple-negative breast cancer cells with a deregulated glutamine metabolism pathway and its suppression synergizes with mTOR inhibition. PLoS ONE 12(9), e0185092 (2017).