New research shows that uridine diphosphate glucose can inhibit lung cancer metastasis by accelerating Snai1 mRNA degradation

UDP glucose (UDP glucose) is a metabolic intermediate in the uro NIC acid pathway In a new study, researchers from the Institute of Biochemistry and cell biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Institute of medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.chemdrug.com/), the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Fudan University and Guangzhou University reported a new function of UDP glucose: it accelerates Snai1 MRNA degradation to inhibit lung cancer metastasis This new study revealed the unique function of UDP glucose in inhibiting tumor metastasis, proposed a new model of protein function regulated by metabolites, and established a new correlation between metabolism and RNA stability These researchers confirmed that ugdh phosphorylated on tyrosine (y) at 473 site after EGFR was activated Ugdh is the rate limiting enzyme in glucuronic acid pathway It catalyzes the production of UDP glucuronic acid from UDP glucose and participates in the biosynthesis of glycosaminoglycan (http://www.chemdrug.com/article/8/) The phosphorylated ugdh binds to HuR and converts UDP glucose into UDP glucuronic acid, which weakens the UDP glucose mediated inhibition of the binding of HuR to Snai1 mRNA and enhances the stability of Snai1 mRNA The increased expression of snail (encoded by Snai1) then initiates epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumor cells, thus promoting tumor cell migration and lung cancer metastasis The researchers found that lower UDP glucose levels were closely associated with metastasis and recurrence of lung cancer They observed that UDP glucose levels in metastatic tumors were much lower than in primary tumors The UDP glucose level of patients with distant metastasis is much lower than that of patients without distant metastasis, and the patients with high phosphorylation level of ugdh y473 in tumor tissue have higher metastasis rate and poor prognosis.