Cells.: co-auth.: I.Lopez-Mejia and L.Fajas

Cells. 2022 Apr 20;11(9):1392. doi: 10.3390/cells11091392.

Glucose Starvation or Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Activation Induce a Broad, ERK5-Mediated, Metabolic Remodeling Leading to Fatty Acid Oxidation

Abrar Ul Haq Khan 1Hamideh Salehi 2Catherine Alexia 1Jose M Valdivielso 3Milica Bozic 3Isabel C Lopez-Mejia 4Lluis Fajas 4 5Sabine Gerbal-Chaloin 1Martine Daujat-Chavanieu 1 6Delphine Gitenay 1Martin Villalba 1 6 7Affiliations expand

Free PMC article

Abstract

Cells have metabolic flexibility that allows them to adapt to changes in substrate availability. Two highly relevant metabolites are glucose and fatty acids (FA), and hence, glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation (FAO) are key metabolic pathways leading to energy production. Both pathways affect each other, and in the absence of one substrate, metabolic flexibility allows cells to maintain sufficient energy production. Here, we show that glucose starvation or sustained pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activation by dichloroacetate (DCA) induce large genetic remodeling to propel FAO. The extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK5) is a key effector of this multistep metabolic remodeling. First, there is an increase in the lipid transport by expression of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins (LRP), e.g., CD36, LRP1 and others. Second, an increase in the expression of members of the acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain (ACSL) family activates FA. Finally, the expression of the enzymes that catalyze the initial step in each cycle of FAO, i.e., the acyl-CoA dehydrogenases (ACADs), is induced. All of these pathways lead to enhanced cellular FAO. In summary, we show here that different families of enzymes, which are essential to perform FAO, are regulated by the signaling pathway, i.e., MEK5/ERK5, which transduces changes from the environment to genetic adaptations.