The aberrant cancer metabolic gene carbohydrate sulfotransferase 11 promotes non-small cell lung cancer cell metastasis via dysregulation of ceruloplasmin and intracellular iron balance

Aberrant metabolism has been proposed as one of the emerging hallmarks of cancer. However, the interplay between metabolic disorders and cancer metastasis remains to be defined. To explore the sophisticated metabolic processes during metastatic progression, we analyzed differentially expressed metabolic genes during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of lung cancer cells and defined the EMT-associated metabolic gene signature in lung adenocarcinoma patients. We found that the glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-chondroitin sulfate (CS) biosynthesis pathway was upregulated in the mesenchymal state of lung cancer and associated with poor prognosis. Notably, carbohydrate sulfotransferase 11 (CHST11), a crucial CS biosynthetic enzyme, was confirmed as a poor prognosis marker in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by immunohistochemical analysis. Moreover, forced CHST11 expression promoted invasion and metastasis, which was abolished by depleting the final product of CS biosynthesis by chondroitinase ABC treatment or active-domain negative CHST11. In vivo metastasis mouse models showed that CHST11 increased lung colonies number and sulfated mucosubstance expression. Furthermore, microarray analysis revealed ceruloplasmin (CP), which facilitated iron metabolism, was the downstream effector of CHST11. CP was upregulated by CHST11 through interferon-γ signaling pathway stimulation and related to unfavorable prognosis. Both forced CP expression and long-term iron treatment increased invasion and lung colony formation. Furthermore, we found 3-AP, an iron chelator, hampered the CHST11-induced metastasis. Our findings implicate that the novel CHST11-CP-iron axis enhances EMT and may serve as a new therapeutic target to treat NSCLC patients.