Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 09 28. pii: e2101268118. [Epub ahead of print]118(39):
Ji Wang,
Harilaos Filippakis,
Thomas Hougard,
Heng Du,
Chenyang Ye,
Heng-Jia Liu,
Long Zhang,
Khadijah Hindi,
Shefali Bagwe,
Julie Nijmeh,
John M Asara,
Wei Shi,
Souheil El-Chemaly,
Elizabeth P Henske,
Hilaire C Lam.
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) are caused by aberrant mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1) activation due to loss of either TSC1 or TSC2 Cytokine profiling of TSC2-deficient LAM patient-derived cells revealed striking up-regulation of Interleukin-6 (IL-6). LAM patient plasma contained increased circulating IL-6 compared with healthy controls, and TSC2-deficient cells showed up-regulation of IL-6 transcription and secretion compared to wild-type cells. IL-6 blockade repressed the proliferation and migration of TSC2-deficient cells and reduced oxygen consumption and extracellular acidification. U-13C glucose tracing revealed that IL-6 knockout reduced 3-phosphoserine and serine production in TSC2-deficient cells, implicating IL-6 in de novo serine metabolism. IL-6 knockout reduced expression of phosphoserine aminotransferase 1 (PSAT1), an essential enzyme in serine biosynthesis. Importantly, recombinant IL-6 treatment rescued PSAT1 expression in the TSC2-deficient, IL-6 knockout clones selectively and had no effect on wild-type cells. Treatment with anti-IL-6 (αIL-6) antibody similarly reduced cell proliferation and migration and reduced renal tumors in Tsc2 +/- mice while reducing PSAT1 expression. These data reveal a mechanism through which IL-6 regulates serine biosynthesis, with potential relevance to the therapy of tumors with mTORC1 hyperactivity.
Keywords: interleukin 6; lymphangioleiomyomatosis; mTORC1; phosphoserine aminotransferase 1 (PSAT1); tuberous sclerosis complex