Important Regulator of Prostate Cancer Cell Survival

In this study we used an unbiased functional approach to identify metabolic enzymes required for the survival of prostate cancer cells. Expression of glycolytic and lipogenic enzymes is induced in response to androgens in prostate can-cer (12). Prostate cancers also show a high rate of de novo lipo-genesis, and inhibition of this process decreases the viability of prostate cancer cells (13, 14). The prostate epithelium se-cretes large amounts of citrate into the seminal fluid, which is achieved by inhibition of aconitase, resulting in a truncated tricarboxylic acid cycle. Interestingly, during transformation, aconitase is reactivated, and prostate cancer cells oxidize ci-trate to generate energy (15). Because many cancer cells ex-hibit attenuated mitochondrial oxidative metabolism (16), prostate cancer may represent a unique metabolic situation. The characterization of several metabolic features of non