Macrophage polarization involves a coordinated metabolic and transcriptional rewiring that is only partially understood. By using an integrated high-throughput transcriptional-metabolic profiling and analysis pipeline, we characterized systemic changes during murine macrophage M1 and M2 polarization. M2 polarization was found to activate glutamine catabolism and UDP-GlcNAc-associated modules. Correspondingly, glutamine deprivation or inhibition of N-glycosylation decreased M2 polarization and production of chemokine CCL22. In M1 macrophages, we identified a metabolic break at Idh, the enzyme that converts isocitrate to alpha-ketoglutarate, providing mechanistic explanation for TCA cycle fragmentation. (13)C-tracer studies suggested the presence of an active variant of the aspartate-arginosuccinate shunt that compensated for this break. Consistently, inhibition of aspartate-aminotransferase, a key enzyme of the shunt, inhibited nitric oxide and interleukin-6 production in M1 macrophages, while promoting mitochondrial respiration. This systems approach provides a highly integrated picture of the physiological modules supporting macrophage polarization, identifying potential pharmacologic control points for both macrophage phenotypes.

Cancer cells adapt their metabolic processes to drive macromolecular biosynthesis for rapid cell growth and proliferation (1,2). RNAi-based loss of function screening has proven powerful for the identification of novel and interesting cancer targets, and recent studies have used this technology in vivo to identify novel tumor suppressor genes (3). Here, we developed a method for identifying novel cancer targets via negative selection RNAi screening in solid tumours. Using this method, we screened a set of metabolic genes associated with aggressive breast cancer and stemness to identify those required for in vivo tumourigenesis. Among the genes identified, phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) is in a genomic region of recurrent copy number gain in breast cancer and PHGDH protein levels are elevated in 70% of ER-negative breast cancers. PHGDH catalyzes the first step in the serine biosynthesis pathway, and breast cancer cells with high PHGDH expression have elevations in serine synthesis flux. Suppression of PHGDH in cell lines with elevated PHGDH expression, but not those without, causes a strong decrease in cell proliferation and a reduction in serine synthesis. We find that PHGDH suppression does not affect intracellular serine levels, but causes a drop in the levels of alpha-ketoglutarate, another output of the pathway and a TCA cycle intermediate. In cells with high PHGDH expression, the serine synthesis pathway contributes approximately 50% of the total anaplerotic flux of glutamine into the TCA cycle. These results reveal that certain breast cancers are dependent upon increased serine pathway flux caused by PHGDH over-expression and demonstrate the utility of in vivo negative selection RNAi screens for finding potential anticancer targets.

Cancer cells engage in a metabolic program to enhance biosynthesis and support cell proliferation. The regulatory properties of pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) influence altered glucose metabolism in cancer. PKM2 interaction with phosphotyrosine-containing proteins inhibits enzyme activity and increases availability of glycolytic metabolites to support cell proliferation. This suggests that high pyruvate kinase activity may suppress tumor growth. We show that expression of PKM1, the pyruvate kinase isoform with high constitutive activity, or exposure to published small molecule PKM2 activators inhibit growth of xenograft tumors. Structural studies reveal that small molecule activators bind PKM2 at the subunit interaction interface, a site distinct from that of the endogenous activator fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP). However, unlike FBP, binding of activators to PKM2 promotes a constitutively active enzyme state that is resistant to inhibition by tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins. These data support the notion that small molecule activation of PKM2 can interfere with anabolic metabolism.

SUMMARY Cultured cells convert glucose to lactate and glutamine is the major source of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle carbon, but whether the same metabolic phenotype is found in tumors is less studied. We infused mice with lung cancers with isotope-labeled glucose or glutamine and compared the fate of these nutrients in tumor and normal tissue. As expected, lung tumors exhibit increased lactate production from glucose. However, glutamine utilization by both lung tumors and normal lung was minimal, with lung tumors showing increased glucose contribution to the TCA cycle relative to normal lung tissue. Deletion of enzymes involved in glucose oxidation demonstrates that glucose carbon contribution to the TCA cycle is required for tumor formation. These data suggest that understanding nutrient utilization by tumors can predict metabolic dependencies of cancers in vivo. Furthermore, these data argue that the in vivo environment is an important determinant of the metabolic phenotype of cancer cells.

Summary Accelerated glucose metabolism is a common feature of cancer cells. Hexokinases catalyze the first committed step of glucose metabolism. Hexokinase 2 (HK2) is expressed at high level in cancer cells, but only in a limited number of normal adult tissues. Using Hk2 conditional knockout mice, we showed that HK2 is required for tumor initiation and maintenance in mouse models of KRas-driven lung cancer, and ErbB2-driven breast cancer, despite continued HK1 expression. Similarly HK2 ablation inhibits the neoplastic phenotype of human lung and breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Systemic Hk2 deletion is therapeutic in mice bearing lung tumors without adverse physiological consequences. Hk2 deletion in lung cancer cells suppressed glucose-derived ribonucleotides and impaired glutamine-derived carbon utilization in anaplerosis.

An unfolded state ensemble is generated by using a self-avoiding statistical coil model that is based on backbone conformational frequencies in a coil library, a subset of the Protein Data Bank. The model reproduces two apparently contradicting behaviors observed in the chemically denatured state for a variety of proteins, random coil scaling of the radius of gyration and the presence of significant amounts of local backbone structure (NMR residual dipolar couplings). The most stretched members of our unfolded ensemble dominate the residual dipolar coupling signal, whereas the uniformity of the sign of the couplings follows from the preponderance of polyproline II and ␤ conformers in the coil library. Agreement with the NMR data substantially improves when the backbone conformational preferences include correlations arising from the chemical and conformational identity of neighboring residues. Although the unfolded ensembles match the experimental observables, they do not display evidence of nativelike topology. By providing an accurate representation of the unfolded state, our statistical coil model can be used to improve thermodynamic and kinetic modeling of protein folding. denatured state ͉ protein folding ͉ residual dipolar coupling ͉ nearest neighbor ͉ radius of gyration D enatured proteins are the initial state for mechanistic and thermodynamic studies of folding. The recent resurgence of interest in the unfolded state is partly motivated by the development of NMR methods that are capable of providing site-resolved structural information (1-7). These measurements indicate that unfolded proteins have far richer structural diversity than earlier believed, possibly even encoding the native topology (1,(8)(9)(10)(11).These works seem at odds with the classic studies by Tanford et al. (12,13), who demonstrated by using hydrodynamic methods that the global dimensions of denatured proteins exhibit the size dependence expected for self-avoiding ''random coil'' polymers. More recent measurements of the radius of gyration, R g , using small-angle scattering methods exhibit the same random coil scaling behavior with length R g ϰ N 0.585 (8,14). These observations are consistent with denatured proteins being random coils in good solvent conditions (15). This finding leads to the so-called ''reconciliation problem'' between the random coil scaling behavior and the presence of significant amounts of local structure in unfolded state (14, 16).However, Rose and Fitzkee (17) demonstrate that even a ''deliberately extreme'' model of chains composed of native-like segments connected by flexible residues also can reproduce random coil scaling behavior. Hence, the recapitulation of the scaling behavior provides only a weak test for any unfolded state model. Nevertheless, spectroscopic measurements, such as circular dichroism, indicate that most unfolded states, particularly chemicaldenatured proteins (8,13,18), have little secondary structure. Accordingly, the unrealistic native-like segment model is ruled out. More exacting...

A central issue in protein folding is the degree to which each residue's backbone conformational preferences stabilize the native state. We have studied the conformational preferences of each amino acid when the amino acid is not constrained to be in a regular secondary structure. In this large but highly restricted coil library, the backbone preferentially adopts dihedral angles consistent with the polyproline II conformation rather than R or conformations. The preference for the polyproline II conformation is independent of the degree of solvation. In conjunction with a new masking procedure, the frequencies in our coil library accurately recapitulate both helix and sheet frequencies for the amino acids in structured regions, as well as polyproline II propensities. Therefore, structural propensities for R-helices and -sheets and for polyproline II conformations in unfolded peptides can be rationalized solely by local effects. In addition, these propensities are often strongly affected by both the chemical nature and the conformation of neighboring residues, contrary to the Flory isolated residue hypothesis.

T lymphocytes (T cells) orchestrate adaptive immune responses that clear pathogens from infected hosts. T cells recognize short peptides (p) derived from antigenic proteins bound to protein products of the MHC genes. Recognition occurs when T cell receptor (TCR) proteins expressed on T cells bind sufficiently strongly to antigen-derived pMHC complexes on the surface of antigenpresenting cells. A diverse repertoire of self-pMHC-tolerant TCR sequences is shaped during development of T cells in the thymus by processes called positive and negative selection. Combining computational models and analysis of experimental data, we parsed the contributions of positive and negative selection to the design of TCR sequences that recognize antigenic peptides with specificity, yet also exhibit cross-reactivity. A dominant role for negative selection in mediating antigen specificity of mature T cells and a molecular mechanism for TCR recognition of antigen are described.statistical mechanics ͉ T cell antigen specificity ͉ thymic selection B ecause T cell receptor (TCR) genes undergo stochastic somatic rearrangement, most T cells express a distinct TCR, thereby enabling the T cell population to recognize many different antigenic short peptide (p)MHC complexes. TCR recognition of pMHC is both specific and degenerate. It is specific, because if a TCR recognizes a particular pMHC complex, most mutations to the peptide amino acids abrogate recognition (1, 2). It is degenerate because a given TCR can interact productively with several antigenic peptides (3). pMHC complexes where the peptide is derived from the cell's own proteins are also displayed on antigenpresenting cell (APC) surfaces. TCRs are self-tolerant because they bind weakly to these ''self''-pMHC complexes, thereby avoiding frequent autoimmune responses.The diverse, specific/degenerate, and self-tolerant T cell repertoire is designed during T cell development in the thymus (4-8). Immature T cells (thymocytes) interact with a variety of self-pMHC molecules expressed on the surface of thymic epithelial cells as well as hematopoietically derived macrophages and dendritic cells. Thymocytes expressing a TCR that binds with high affinity to any self-pMHC molecule are deleted in the thymus (a process called negative selection). However, a thymocyte's TCR must also bind sufficiently strongly to at least one type of self pMHC complex to receive survival signals and emigrate from the thymus (a process called positive selection).Signaling events, gene transcription programs, and cell migration during T cell development in the thymus have been studied extensively (4-14). Despite important advances, how interactions with self-pMHC complexes in the thymus shape the peptidebinding properties of selected TCR amino acid sequences such that mature T cells exhibit their special properties is poorly understood.Recent experiments carried out by Huseby et al.(1, 2) provided important clues in this regard. These experiments determined differences in how T cells interact with foreign (antigenic...