Work

The mitochondrial citrate transporter, CIC, is essential for mitochondrial homeostasis

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: // Olga Catalina-Rodriguez 1,* ,Vamsi K. Kolukula 1,* , York Tomita 1 , Anju Preet 1 , Ferdinando Palmieri 2 , Anton Wellstein 1 ,Stephen Byers 1 , Amato J. Giaccia 3 , Eric Glasgow 1 , Chris Albanese 1 and Maria Laura Avantaggiati 1 1 Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA. 2 Department of Pharmaco-Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy. 3 Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. * denotes equal contribution Correspondence: Maria Laura Avantaggiati, email: // Keywords : SLC25A1, CIC, citrate, cancer, mitochondria, autophagy, Di-George Syndrome Received : October 18, 2012, Accepted : October 18, 2012, Published : October 20, 2012 Abstract Dysregulation of the pathways that preserve mitochondrial integrity hallmarks many human diseases including diabetes, neurodegeration, aging and cancer. The mitochondrial citrate transporter gene, SLC25A1 or CIC, maps on chromosome 22q11.21, a region amplified in some tumors and deleted in developmental disorders known as velo-cardio-facial- and DiGeorge syndromes. We report here that in tumor cells CIC maintains mitochondrial integrity and bioenergetics, protects from mitochondrial damage and circumvents mitochondrial depletion via autophagy, hence promoting proliferation. CIC levels are increased in human cancers and its inhibition has anti-tumor activity, albeit with no toxicity on adult normal tissues. The knock-down of the CIC gene in zebrafish leads to mitochondria depletion and to proliferation defects that recapitulate features of human velo-cardio-facial syndrome, a phenotype rescued by blocking autophagy. Our findings reveal that CIC maintains mitochondrial homeostasis in metabolically active, high proliferating tissues and imply that this protein is a therapeutic target in cancer and likely, in other human diseases.

Source: Oncotarget

DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.714