Targeted Inhibition of Purine Metabolism Is Effective in Suppressing Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression

Tumor-specific metabolic rewiring, acquired to confer a proliferative and survival advantage over nontransformed cells, represents a renewed focus in cancer therapy development. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a malignancy that has hitherto been resistant to compounds targeting oncogenic signaling pathways, represents a candidate cancer to investigate the efficacy of selectively antagonizing such adaptive metabolic reprogramming. To this end, we sought to characterize metabolic changes in HCC necessary for tumorigenesis. We analyzed gene expression profiles in three independent large-scale patient cohorts who had HCC. We identified a commonly deregulated purine metabolic signature in tumors with the extent of purine biosynthetic enzyme up-regulation correlated with tumor grade and a predictor of clinical outcome. The functional significance of enhanced purine metabolism as a hallmark in human HCC was then validated using a combination of HCC cell lines, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) organoids, and mouse models. Targeted ablation of purine biosynthesis by knockdown of the rate-limiting enzyme inosine-5′-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) or using the drug mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) reduced HCC proliferation in vitro and decreased the tumor burden in vivo. In comparing the sensitivities of PDX tumor organoids to MMF therapy, we found that HCC tumors defined by high levels of IMPDH and guanosine nucleosides were most susceptible to treatment. Mechanistically, a phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)–E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) axis coordinated purine biosynthetic enzyme expression, deregulation of which altered the activity of mitogen-activated protein kinase/RAS signaling. Simultaneously abolishing PI3K signaling and IMPDH activity with clinically approved inhibitors resulted in greatest efficacy in reducing tumor growth in a PDX mouse model. Conclusion: Enhanced purine metabolic activity regulated by PI3K pathway-dependent activation of E2F1 promotes HCC carcinogenesis, suggesting the potential for targeting purine metabolic reprogramming as a precision therapeutic strategy for patients with HCC.