Browsing by Author "Intlekofer, Andrew M."

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    As Extracellular Glutamine Levels Decline, Asparagine Becomes an Essential Amino Acid
    (Elsevier, 2018-02-06) Pavlova, Natalya N.; Hui, Sheng; Ghergurovich, Jonathan M.; Fan, Jing; Intlekofer, Andrew M.; White, Richard M.; Rabinowitz, Joshua D.; Thompson, Craig B.; Zhang, Ji; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    When mammalian cells are deprived of glutamine, exogenous asparagine rescues cell survival and growth. Here we report that this rescue results from use of asparagine in protein synthesis. All mammalian cell lines tested lacked cytosolic asparaginase activity and could not utilize asparagine to produce other amino acids or biosynthetic intermediates. Instead, most glutamine-deprived cell lines are capable of sufficient glutamine synthesis to maintain essential amino acid uptake and production of glutamine-dependent biosynthetic precursors, with the exception of asparagine. While experimental introduction of cytosolic asparaginase could enhance the synthesis of glutamine and increase tricarboxylic acid cycle anaplerosis and the synthesis of nucleotide precursors, cytosolic asparaginase suppressed the growth and survival of cells in glutamine-depleted medium in vitro and severely compromised the in vivo growth of tumor xenografts. These results suggest that the lack of asparaginase activity represents an evolutionary adaptation to allow mammalian cells to survive pathophysiologic variations in extracellular glutamine.
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    CD8+ T cell metabolic flexibility elicited by CD28-ARS2 axis-driven alternative splicing of PKM supports antitumor immunity
    (Springer Nature, 2024) Holling, G. Aaron; Chavel, Colin A.; Sharda, Anand P.; Lieberman, Mackenzie M.; James, Caitlin M.; Lightman, Shivana M.; Tong, Jason H.; Qiao, Guanxi; Emmons, Tiffany R.; Giridharan, Thejaswini; Hou, Shengqi; Intlekofer, Andrew M.; Higashi, Richard M.; Fan, Teresa W. M.; Lane, Andrew N.; Eng, Kevin H.; Segal, Brahm H.; Repasky, Elizabeth A.; Lee, Kelvin P.; Olejniczak, Scott H.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Metabolic flexibility has emerged as a critical determinant of CD8+ T-cell antitumor activity, yet the mechanisms driving the metabolic flexibility of T cells have not been determined. In this study, we investigated the influence of the nuclear cap-binding complex (CBC) adaptor protein ARS2 on mature T cells. In doing so, we discovered a novel signaling axis that endows activated CD8+ T cells with flexibility of glucose catabolism. ARS2 upregulation driven by CD28 signaling reinforced splicing factor recruitment to pre-mRNAs and affected approximately one-third of T-cell activation-induced alternative splicing events. Among these effects, the CD28-ARS2 axis suppressed the expression of the M1 isoform of pyruvate kinase in favor of PKM2, a key determinant of CD8+ T-cell glucose utilization, interferon gamma production, and antitumor effector function. Importantly, PKM alternative splicing occurred independently of CD28-driven PI3K pathway activation, revealing a novel means by which costimulation reprograms glucose metabolism in CD8+ T cells.