The p53/LDHA axis negatively regulates aerobic glycolysis and tumor progression in breast cancer expressing wild-type p53.

The tumor suppressor p53 is a master regulator of apoptosis and plays key roles in cell cycle checkpoints. p53 responds to metabolic changes and alters metabolism through several mechanisms in cancer. Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), a key enzyme in glycolysis, is highly expressed in a variety of tumors and catalyzes pyruvate to lactate. In this study, we first analyzed the association and clinical significance of p53 and LDHA in breast cancer expressing wild-type p53 and found that LDHA mRNA levels are negatively correlated with wild-type p53 but not mutation p53 mRNA levels, and low p53 and high LDHA expression are significantly associated with poor overall survival rates. Furthermore, p53 negatively regulates LDHA expression by directly binding its promoter region. Moreover, a series of LDHA gain-of-function and rescore experiments were performed in breast cancer MCF7 cells expressing endogenous wt-p53, revealing that ectopic expression of p53 decreases aerobic glycolysis, cell proliferation, migration, invasion and tumor formation of breast cancer cells and restoration of the expression of LDHA in p53-overexpressing cells could abolish the suppressive effect of p53 on aerobic glycolysis and other malignant phenotypes. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that repressive LDHA induced by wt-p53 blocks tumor growth and invasion through down-regulation of aerobic glycolysis in breast cancer, providing new insights into the mechanism by which p53 contributes to the development and progression of breast cancer. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.