Critical role of O-Linked β-N-acetylglucosamine transferase in prostate cancer invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis.

Cancer cells universally increase glucose and glutamine consumption, leading to the altered metabolic state known as the Warburg effect; one metabolic pathway, highly dependent on glucose and glutamine, is the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway. Increased flux through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway leads to increases in the post-translational addition of O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) to various nuclear and cytosolic proteins. A number of these target proteins are implicated in cancer, and recently, O-GlcNAcylation was shown to play a role in breast cancer; however, O-GlcNAcylation in other cancers remains poorly defined. Here, we show that O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) is overexpressed in prostate cancer compared with normal prostate epithelium and that OGT protein and O-GlcNAc levels are elevated in prostate carcinoma cell lines. Reducing O-GlcNAcylation in PC3-ML cells was associated with reduced expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, and VEGF, resulting in inhibition of invasion and angiogenesis. OGT-mediated regulation of invasion and angiogenesis was dependent upon regulation of the oncogenic transcription factor FoxM1, a key regulator of invasion and angiogenesis, as reducing OGT expression led to increased FoxM1 protein degradation. Conversely, overexpression of a degradation-resistant FoxM1 mutant abrogated OGT RNAi-mediated effects on invasion, MMP levels, angiogenesis, and VEGF expression. Using a mouse model of metastasis, we found that reduction of OGT expression blocked bone metastasis. Altogether, these data suggest that as prostate cancer cells alter glucose and glutamine levels, O-GlcNAc modifications and OGT levels become elevated and are required for regulation of malignant properties, implicating OGT as a novel therapeutic target in the treatment of cancer.