Pyruvate carboxylase promotes thyroid cancer aggressiveness through fatty acid synthesis

BACKGROUND: Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) is an important anaplerotic enzyme in the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) in cancer cells. Although PC overexpression has been observed in thyroid cancer (TC), the mechanisms involved in the carcinogenic effects of PC are still unclear. METHODS: Bioinformatics analysis and clinical specimens were used to analyze the relationship of PC expression with clinicopathological variables in TC. Fatty acid synthesis was monitored by LC/MS, Nile red staining, and triglyceride analysis. Mitochondrial oxygen consumption was evaluated by the Seahorse XF Mito Cell Stress Test. The correlation of PC with FASN and SREBP1c was assessed by qRT-PCR and IHC in 38 human TC tissues. Western blotting was used to evaluate the protein expression of PC, FASN, and SREBP1c and members of the AKT/mTOR and EMT pathways in TC cell lines. Wound-healing, CCK-8, and Transwell assays and a nude mouse xenograft model were used to verify the regulatory effects of PC and SREBP1c on thyroid tumor cell proliferation, migration and invasion. RESULTS: We demonstrated that PC increased fatty acid synthesis, which then promoted TC progression and metastasis. Analysis of GEO data showed that the overexpression of PC in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) was associated with PTC invasion and the fatty acid synthesis pathway. Analysis of clinical tissue specimens from PTC patients revealed that PC was more highly expressed in specimens from PTC patients with lymph node metastasis than in those from patients without metastasis. Multiple genes in the fatty acid synthesis signaling pathway, including FASN and SREBP1c, were downregulated in PC-knockdown TC cells compared to control cells. Lipid levels were also decreased in the PC-knockdown TC cells. Moreover, the ability of cells to grow, invade, and metastasize was also suppressed upon PC knockdown, suggesting that PC-mediated lipogenesis activation increases the aggressiveness of TC cells. In addition, PC was found to activate the AKT/mTOR pathway, thus improving FASN-mediated de novo lipogenesis in TC cells by upregulating SREBP1c expression. Studies in a nude mouse xenograft model showed that PC knockdown decreased tumor weight, but this effect was attenuated by forced expression of SREBP1c. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that PC is strongly involved in the tumor aggressiveness of TC via its stimulation of fatty acid synthesis. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08499-9.