Loss of hepatic aldolase B activates Akt and promotes hepatocellular carcinogenesis by destabilizing the Aldob/Akt/PP2A protein complex

PLoS Biol. 2020 Dec 4;18(12):e3000803. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000803. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Loss of hepatic fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate aldolase B (Aldob) leads to a paradoxical up-regulation of glucose metabolism to favor hepatocellular carcinogenesis (HCC), but the upstream signaling events remain poorly defined. Akt is highly activated in HCC, and targeting Akt is being explored as a potential therapy for HCC. Herein, we demonstrate that Aldob suppresses Akt activity and tumor growth through a protein complex containing Aldob, Akt, and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), leading to inhibition of cell viability, cell cycle progression, glucose uptake, and metabolism. Interestingly, Aldob directly interacts with phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt) and promotes the recruitment of PP2A to dephosphorylate p-Akt, and this scaffolding effect of Aldob is independent of its enzymatic activity. Loss of Aldob or disruption of Aldob/Akt interaction in Aldob R304A mutant restores Akt activity and tumor-promoting effects. Consistently, Aldob and p-Akt expression are inversely correlated in human HCC tissues, and Aldob down-regulation coupled with p-Akt up-regulation predicts a poor prognosis for HCC. We have further discovered that Akt inhibition or a specific small-molecule activator of PP2A (SMAP) efficiently attenuates HCC tumorigenesis in xenograft mouse models. Our work reveals a novel nonenzymatic role of Aldob in negative regulation of Akt activation, suggesting that directly inhibiting Akt activity or through reactivating PP2A may be a potential therapeutic approach for HCC treatment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / metabolism*
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / physiopathology
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Survival / genetics
  • China
  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase / biosynthesis
  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase / genetics
  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase / metabolism*
  • Glucose / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Liver Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Nude
  • Phosphorylation
  • Protein Phosphatase 2 / metabolism
  • Protein Phosphatase 2 / physiology
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / metabolism*
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt
  • Protein Phosphatase 2
  • Fructose-Bisphosphate Aldolase
  • Glucose

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China administered by Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) (2018YFA0800300 for HY) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (91857112, 31671231, and 32030053 for HY). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.