Breast cancer tumorigenicity is dependent on high expression levels of NAF-1 and the lability of its Fe-S clusters

Merav Darash-Yahana, Yair Pozniak, Mingyang Lu, Yang Sung Sohn, Ola Karmi, Sagi Tamir, Fang Bai, Luhua Song, Patricia A. Jennings, Eli Pikarsky, Tamar Geiger, José N. Onuchic*, Ron Mittler, Rachel Nechushtai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

61 Scopus citations

Abstract

Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) proteins are thought to play an important role in cancer cells mediating redox reactions, DNA replication, and telomere maintenance. Nutrient-deprivation autophagy factor-1 (NAF-1) is a 2Fe-2S protein associated with the progression of multiple cancer types. It is unique among Fe-S proteins because of its 3Cys-1His cluster coordination structure that allows it to be relatively stable, as well as to transfer its clusters to apo-acceptor proteins. Here, we report that overexpression of NAF-1 in xenograft breast cancer tumors results in a dramatic augmentation in tumor size and aggressiveness and that NAF-1 overexpression enhances the tolerance of cancer cells to oxidative stress. Remarkably, overexpression of a NAF-1 mutant with a single point mutation that stabilizes the NAF-1 cluster, NAF-1(H114C), in xenograft breast cancer tumors results in a dramatic decrease in tumor size that is accompanied by enhanced mitochondrial iron and reactive oxygen accumulation and reduced cellular tolerance to oxidative stress. Furthermore, treating breast cancer cells with pioglitazone that stabilizes the 3Cys-1His cluster of NAF-1 results in a similar effect on mitochondrial iron and reactive oxygen species accumulation. Taken together, our findings point to a key role for the unique 3Cys-1His cluster of NAF-1 in promoting rapid tumor growth through cellular resistance to oxidative stress. Cluster transfer reactions mediated by the overexpressed NAF-1 protein are therefore critical for inducing oxidative stress tolerance in cancer cells, leading to rapid tumor growth, and drugs that stabilize the NAF-1 cluster could be used as part of a treatment strategy for cancers that display high NAF-1 expression.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)10890-10895
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume113
Issue number39
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Sep 2016

Funding

FundersFunder number
Keck Center for Interdisciplinary Bioscience Training of the Gulf Coast ConsortiaRP140113
University of North Texas College of Arts and Sciences
National Science FoundationPHY-1427654
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of General Medical SciencesR01GM101467
Welch FoundationC-1792
Israel Cancer Research Fund
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of TexasR1110
Israel Science Foundation865/13

    Keywords

    • Cancer
    • Fe-S
    • NAF-1
    • NEET
    • ROS

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