Mitochondrial activation by inhibition of PDKII suppresses HIF1a signaling and angiogenesis in cancer

Most solid tumors are characterized by a metabolic shift from glucose oxidation to glycolysis, in part due to actively suppressed mitochondrial function, a state that favors resistance to apoptosis. Suppressed mitochondrial function may also contribute to the activation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) and angiogenesis. We have previously shown that the inhibitor of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) dichloroacetate (DCA) activates glucose oxidation and induces apoptosis in cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We hypothesized that DCA will also reverse the 'pseudohypoxic' mitochondrial signals that lead to HIF1α activation in cancer, even in the absence of hypoxia and inhibit cancer angiogenesis. We show that inhibition of PDKII inhibits HIF1α in cancer cells using several techniques, including HIF1α luciferase reporter assays. Using pharmacologic and molecular approaches that suppress the prolyl-hydroxylase (PHD)-mediated inhibition of HIF1α, we show that DCA inhibits HIF1α by both a PHD-dependent mechanism (that involves a DCA-induced increase in the production of mitochondria-derived α-ketoglutarate) and a PHD-independent mechanism, involving activation of p53 via mitochondrial-derived H(2)O(2), as well as activation of GSK3β. Effective inhibition of HIF1α is shown by a decrease in the expression of several HIF1α regulated gene products as well as inhibition of angiogenesis in vitro in matrigel assays. More importantly, in rat xenotransplant models of non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer, we show effective inhibition of angiogenesis and tumor perfusion in vivo, assessed by contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, nuclear imaging techniques and histology. This work suggests that mitochondria-targeting metabolic modulators that increase pyruvate dehydrogenase activity, in addition to the recently described pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative effects, suppress angiogenesis as well, normalizing the pseudo-hypoxic signals that lead to normoxic HIF1α activation in solid tumors.