DDRE-15. THE EVOLUTIONARY ENIGMA OF FATTY ACID DESATURATION IN GLIOBLASTOMA

Fatty acid desaturation is an enzymatic reaction in which a double bond is introduced into an acyl chain. Of the four functionally distinct desaturase subfamilies, the First Desaturase Family of enzymes introduce the first double bond into a saturated fatty acid, resulting in the synthesis of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). MUFA are essential components of membrane and storage lipids and exert a profound influence on the fluidity of biological membranes. A disequilibrium in saturated to unsaturated fatty acid ratio alters cell growth, differentiation and response to external stimuli, and thus affects a range of pathologies including cancer. The most abundant and key First Desaturase Family enzyme is the delta 9 desaturate called Stearoyl Co-A Desaturase (SCD and SCD5 in humans, and SCD1-4 in mice). SCD desaturates Stearoyl-CoA (C18) and palmitoyl-CoA (C16) to oleoyl-CoA (C18:1) and palmitoyl-CoA (C16:1), respectively. Besides SCD, the only known First Desaturase in mammals with dual function is FADS2 which desaturates palmitate to Sapienate (C16:1, a positional isomer of palmitoleate) in skin cells. A recent study showed that some cancer cells can use FADS2 to bypass the SCD reaction. SCD and SCD5 are by far the most abundant desaturases expressed in the human brain. We made an unexpected discovery that SCD undergoes monoallelic codeletion with PTEN on chromosome 10, and is also highly methylated in glioblastoma (GBM). More surprisingly, all GBM cell lines with SCD codeletion/methylation (that expressed very little SCD protein) are completely resistant to SCD/SCD5 inhibition, yet their phospholipids contained abundant oleic acid. It is unknown if GBMs bypassed SCD, but retained the delta 9 desaturation reaction through a novel enzymatic activity. Our targeted and untargeted metabolomics studies revealed unexpected findings that cannot be explained by conventional wisdom, and may lead to identification of novel lipogenic targets in GBM.