Abstract
Anexelekto (AXL), a member of the TYRO3-AXL-MER (TAM) family of receptor tyrosine kinasesĀ (RTK), is overexpressed in varieties of tumor tissues and promotes tumor development by regulating cell proliferation, migration and invasion. In this study, we investigated the role of AXL in regulating glycolysis in human ovarian cancer (OvCa) cells. We showed that the expression of AXL mRNA and protein was significantly higher in OvCa tissue than that in normal ovarian epithelial tissue. In human OvCa cell lines suppression of AXL significantly inhibited cell proliferation, and increased the sensitivity of OvCa cells to cisplatin, which also proved by nude mice tumor formation experiment. KEGG analysis showed that AXL was significantly enriched in the glycolysis pathways of cancer. Changes in AXL expression in OvCa cells affect tumor glycolysis. We demonstrated that the promotion effect of AXL on glycolysis was mediated by phosphorylating the M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) at Y105. AXL expression was significantly higher in cisplatin-resistant OvCa cells A2780/DDP compared with the parental A2780 cells. Inhibition of AXL decreased the level of glycolysis in A2780/DDP cells, and increased the cytotoxicity of cisplatin against A2780/DDP cells, suggesting that AXL-mediated glycolysis was associated with cisplatin resistance in OvCa. In conclusion, this study demonstrates for the first time that AXL is involved in the regulation of the Warburg effect. Our results not only highlight the clinical value of targeting AXL, but also provide theoretical basis for the combination of AXL inhibitor and cisplatin in the treatment of OvCa.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 81972480), and the Postgraduate Research and Innovation Project of Central South University (grant number: 2019zzts 769). A2780/DDP and A2780 cells were gifted by Pingan Ma (State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization).
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YC and MT conceived and designed the research. MT and DZ performed the experiments. MT, XSC, LYL, HZW, and DZ conducted the data analysis. SSX provided cell lines and clinical samples. MT drafted the manuscript. YC, XLW, YZ, and SSX revised and approved the manuscript.
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Tian, M., Chen, Xs., Li, Ly. et al. Inhibition of AXL enhances chemosensitivity of human ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin via decreasing glycolysis. Acta Pharmacol Sin 42, 1180ā1189 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41401-020-00546-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41401-020-00546-8
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