Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-15-2017

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It is the author’s final published version in Cell Reports

Volume 20, Issue 7, August 2017, Pages 1654-1666.

The published version is available at DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.07.054. Copyright © Palmieri et al.

Abstract

Glutamine-synthetase (GS), the glutamine-synthesizing enzyme from glutamate, controls important events, including the release of inflammatory mediators, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activation, and autophagy. However, its role in macrophages remains elusive. We report that pharmacologic inhibition of GS skews M2-polarized macrophages toward the M1-like phenotype, characterized by reduced intracellular glutamine and increased succinate with enhanced glucose flux through glycolysis, which could be partly related to HIF1α activation. As a result of these metabolic changes and HIF1α accumulation, GS-inhibited macrophages display an increased capacity to induce T cell recruitment, reduced T cell suppressive potential, and an impaired ability to foster endothelial cell branching or cancer cell motility. Genetic deletion of macrophagic GS in tumor-bearing mice promotes tumor vessel pruning, vascular normalization, accumulation of cytotoxic T cells, and metastasis inhibition. These data identify GS activity as mediator of the proangiogenic, immunosuppressive, and pro-metastatic function of M2-like macrophages and highlight the possibility of targeting this enzyme in the treatment of cancer metastasis.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

PubMed ID

28813676

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