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The tumour suppressor APC is the most commonly mutated gene in colorectal cancer. Loss of Apc in intestinal stem cells drives the formation of adenomas in mice via increased WNT signalling 1 , but reduced secretion of WNT ligands increases the ability of Apc -mutant intestinal stem cells to colonize a crypt (known as fixation) 2 . Here we investigated how Apc -mutant cells gain a clonal advantage over wild-type counterparts to achieve fixation. We found that Apc -mutant cells are enriched for transcripts that encode several secreted WNT antagonists, with Notum being the most highly expressed. Conditioned medium from Apc -mutant cells suppressed the growth of wild-type organoids in a NOTUM-dependent manner. Furthermore, NOTUM-secreting Apc -mutant clones actively inhibited the proliferation of surrounding wild-type crypt cells and drove their differentiation, thereby outcompeting crypt cells from the niche. Genetic or pharmacological inhibition of NOTUM abrogated the ability of Apc -mutant cells to expand and form intestinal adenomas. We identify NOTUM as a key mediator during the early stages of mutation fixation that can be targeted to restore wild-type cell competitiveness and provide preventative strategies for people at a high risk of developing colorectal cancer. NOTUM from Apc -mutant cells acts as a key mediator during the early stages of mutation fixation and drives the formation of intestinal adenomas.

Despite the clinical success of Androgen Receptor (AR)-targeted therapies, reactivation of AR signalling remains the main driver of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) progression. In this study, we perform a comprehensive unbiased characterisation of LNCaP cells chronically exposed to multiple AR inhibitors (ARI). Combined proteomics and metabolomics analyses implicate an acquired metabolic phenotype common in ARI-resistant cells and associated with perturbed glucose and lipid metabolism. To exploit this phenotype, we delineate a subset of proteins consistently associated with ARI resistance and highlight mitochondrial 2,4-dienoyl-CoA reductase (DECR1), an auxiliary enzyme of beta-oxidation, as a clinically relevant biomarker for CRPC. Mechanistically, DECR1 participates in redox homeostasis by controlling the balance between saturated and unsaturated phospholipids. DECR1 knockout induces ER stress and sensitises CRPC cells to ferroptosis. In vivo, DECR1 deletion impairs lipid metabolism and reduces CRPC tumour growth, emphasizing the importance of DECR1 in the development of treatment resistance. Androgen receptor (AR) signalling regulates cellular metabolism in prostate cancer. Here, the authors perform a proteomics and metabolomics characterisation of prostate cancer cells adapted to long-term resistance to AR inhibition and show rewiring of glucose and lipid metabolism, and further identify a signature associated with resistance to AR inhibition.

Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) is a heterotetrameric nuclear-encoded complex responsible for the oxidation of succinate to fumarate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Loss-of-function mutations in any of the SDH genes are associated with cancer formation. However, the impact of SDH loss on cell metabolism and the mechanisms enabling growth of SDH-defective cells are largely unknown. Here, we generated Sdhb -ablated kidney mouse cells and used comparative metabolomics and stable-isotope-labelling approaches to identify nutritional requirements and metabolic adaptations to SDH loss. We found that lack of SDH activity commits cells to consume extracellular pyruvate, which sustains Warburg-like bioenergetic features. We further demonstrated that pyruvate carboxylation diverts glucose-derived carbons into aspartate biosynthesis, thus sustaining cell growth. By identifying pyruvate carboxylase as essential for the proliferation and tumorigenic capacity of SDH-deficient cells, this study revealed a metabolic vulnerability for potential future treatment of SDH-associated malignancies. SDH inactivation is associated with cancer susceptibility. Cardaci et al. report a metabolic vulnerability in SDH-deficient cells, by showing that they depend on pyruvate carboxylation for the production of aspartate, proliferation and tumour growth.

Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARG) is one of the three members of the PPAR family of transcription factors. Besides its roles in adipocyte differentiation and lipid metabolism, we recently demonstrated an association between PPARG and metastasis in prostate cancer. In this study a functional effect of PPARG on AKT serine/threonine kinase 3 (AKT3), which ultimately results in a more aggressive disease phenotype was identified. AKT3 has previously been shown to regulate PPARG co-activator 1 alpha (PGC1α) localisation and function through its action on chromosome maintenance region 1 (CRM1). AKT3 promotes PGC1α localisation to the nucleus through its inhibitory effects on CRM1, a known nuclear export protein. Collectively our results demonstrate how PPARG over-expression drives an increase in AKT3 levels, which in turn has the downstream effect of increasing PGC1α localisation within the nucleus, driving mitochondrial biogenesis. Furthermore, this increase in mitochondrial mass provides higher energetic output in the form of elevated ATP levels which may fuel the progression of the tumour cell through epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and ultimately metastasis.

The role of glutaminolysis in providing metabolites to support tumour growth is well-established, but the involvement of glutamine metabolism in invasive processes is yet to be elucidated. Here we show that normal mammary epithelial cells consume glutamine, but do not secrete glutamate. Indeed, low levels of extracellular glutamate are necessary to maintain epithelial homoeostasis, and provision of glutamate drives disruption of epithelial morphology and promotes key characteristics of the invasive phenotype such as lumen-filling and basement membrane disruption. By contrast, primary cultures of invasive breast cancer cells convert glutamine to glutamate which is released from the cell through the system Xc- antiporter to activate a metabotropic glutamate receptor. This contributes to the intrinsic aggressiveness of these cells by upregulating Rab27-dependent recycling of the transmembrane matrix metalloprotease, MT1-MMP to promote invasive behaviour leading to basement membrane disruption. These data indicate that acquisition of the ability to release glutamate is a key watershed in disease aggressiveness. Glutamine metabolism is well known to support tumour growth. Here the authors show that cancer cells also utilize glutamine to promote invasiveness by converting it to glutamate, which upon secretion activates metabotropic glutamate receptors to stimulate matrix metalloproteases recycling to the cell surface.

Different thresholds of Wnt signalling are thought to drive stem cell maintenance, regeneration, differentiation and cancer. However, the principle that oncogenic Wnt signalling could be specifically targeted remains controversial. Here we examine the requirement of BCL9/9l, constituents of the Wnt-enhanceosome, for intestinal transformation following loss of the tumour suppressor APC. Although required for Lgr5+ intestinal stem cells and regeneration, Bcl9/9l deletion has no impact upon normal intestinal homeostasis. Loss of BCL9/9l suppressed many features of acute APC loss and subsequent Wnt pathway deregulation in vivo. This resulted in a level of Wnt pathway activation that favoured tumour initiation in the proximal small intestine (SI) and blocked tumour growth in the colon. Furthermore, Bcl9/9l deletion completely abrogated β-catenin driven intestinal and hepatocellular transformation. We speculate these results support the just-right hypothesis of Wnt–driven tumour formation. Importantly, loss of BCL9/9l is particularly effective at blocking colonic tumourigenesis and mutations that most resemble those that occur in human cancer. Whether the Wnt enhanceosome’ components BCL9/9l can affect intestinal homeostasis and tumorigenesis is still unclear. Using conditional Bcl9/9l KO mice, the authors of this study show that the BCL9/9l complex is required for intestinal stem cells to drive tissue regeneration and that loss of BCL9/9l suppresses Wnt-driven transformation.

Mice are a widely used pre-clinical model system in large part due to their potential for genetic manipulation. The ability to manipulate gene expression in specific cells under temporal control is a powerful experimental tool. The liver is central to metabolic homeostasis and a site of many diseases, making the targeting of hepatocytes attractive. Adeno-associated virus 8 (AAV8) vectors are valuable instruments for the manipulation of hepatocellular gene expression. However, their off-target effects in mice have not been thoroughly explored. Here, we sought to identify the short-term off-target effects of AAV8 administration in mice. To do this, we injected C57BL/6J wild-type mice with either recombinant AAV8 vectors expressing Cre recombinase or control AAV8 vectors and characterised the changes in general health and in liver physiology, histology and transcriptomics compared to uninjected controls. We observed an acute and transient trend for reduction in homeostatic liver proliferation together with induction of the DNA damage marker γH2AX following AAV8 administration. The latter was enhanced upon Cre recombinase expression by the vector. Furthermore, we observed transcriptional changes in genes involved in circadian rhythm and response to infection. Notably, there were no additional transcriptomic changes upon expression of Cre recombinase by the AAV8 vector. Overall, there was no evidence of liver injury, and only mild T-cell infiltration was observed 14 days following AAV8 infection. These data advance the technique of hepatocellular genome editing through Cre-Lox recombination using Cre expressing AAV vectors, demonstrating their minimal effects on murine physiology and highlight the more subtle off target effects of these systems.

Oncogenic KRAS mutations are well-described functionally and are known to drive tumorigenesis. Recent reports describe a significant prevalence of KRAS allelic imbalances or gene dosage changes in human cancers, including loss of the wild-type allele in KRAS mutant cancers. However, the role of wild-type KRAS in tumorigenesis and therapeutic response remains elusive. We report an in vivo murine model of colorectal cancer featuring deletion of wild-type Kras in the context of oncogenic Kras . Deletion of wild-type Kras exacerbates oncogenic KRAS signalling through MAPK and thus drives tumour initiation. Absence of wild-type Kras potentiates the oncogenic effect of KRASG12D, while incidentally inducing sensitivity to inhibition of MEK1/2. Importantly, loss of the wild-type allele in aggressive models of KRASG12D-driven CRC significantly alters tumour progression, and suppresses metastasis through modulation of the immune microenvironment. This study highlights the critical role for wild-type Kras upon tumour initiation, progression and therapeutic response in Kras mutant CRC. The function of wild-type KRAS in KRAS mutant cancers remains to be explored. Here, the authors show that deletion of the tumour-suppressive wild-type Kras in a KRASG12D driven colon cancer model exacerbates tumour initiation in a MAPK dependent manner, while acting to suppress metastasis through impaired immune suppression.

The limited availability of therapeutic options for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) contributes to the high rate of metastatic recurrence and poor prognosis. Ferroptosis is a type of cell death caused by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and counteracted by the antioxidant activity of the selenoprotein GPX4. Here, we show that TNBC cells secrete an anti-ferroptotic factor in the extracellular environment when cultured at high cell densities but are primed to ferroptosis when forming colonies at low density. We found that secretion of the anti-ferroptotic factors, identified as monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) containing lipids, and the vulnerability to ferroptosis of single cells depends on the low expression of stearyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) that is proportional to cell density. Finally, we show that the inhibition of Sec-tRNAsec biosynthesis, an essential step for selenoprotein production, causes ferroptosis and impairs the lung seeding of circulating TNBC cells that are no longer protected by the MUFA-rich environment of the primary tumour. Synopsis At high density and in tumours TNBC cells produce MUFAs via SCD and secrete lipid-bound MUFAs that protects them from pro-ferroptotic lipid peroxidation. TNBC cells metastasizing in the bloodstream downregulate SCD expression that sensitizes them to the inhibition of Sec-tRNAsec biosynthesis. Selenium limitation triggers ferroptosis selectively in TNBC cells cultured at low cell density. TNBC cells cultured at high cell density secrete SCD-derived anti-ferroptotic lipid-bound MUFAs. SCD expression is regulated by cell density and is high in tumours and low in metastasizing cells. Sec-tRNAsec biosynthesis interference selectively impairs TNBCs metastasis. At high density and in tumours TNBC cells produce MUFAs via SCD and secrete lipid-bound MUFAs that protects them from pro-ferroptotic lipid peroxidation. TNBC cells metastasizing in the bloodstream downregulate SCD expression that sensitizes them to the inhibition of Sec-tRNAsec biosynthesis.

Current therapeutic options for treating colorectal cancer have little clinical efficacy and acquired resistance during treatment is common, even following patient stratification. Understanding the mechanisms that promote therapy resistance may lead to the development of novel therapeutic options that complement existing treatments and improve patient outcome. Here, we identify RAC1B as an important mediator of colorectal tumourigenesis and a potential target for enhancing the efficacy of EGFR inhibitor treatment. We find that high RAC1B expression in human colorectal cancer is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis and deletion of Rac1b in a mouse colorectal cancer model reduces tumourigenesis. We demonstrate that RAC1B interacts with, and is required for efficient activation of the EGFR signalling pathway. Moreover, RAC1B inhibition sensitises cetuximab resistant human tumour organoids to the effects of EGFR inhibition, outlining a potential therapeutic target for improving the clinical efficacy of EGFR inhibitors in colorectal cancer. RAC1 is a downstream target of the Wnt signaling that promotes intestinal stem cell expansion and tumorigenesis. Here, the authors identify the specific splice variant RAC1B as an important mediator of colorectal tumourigenesis and a potential target for enhancing the efficacy of EGFR inhibitor treatment.