VGLL3 increases the dependency of cancer cells on de novo nucleotide synthesis through GART expression

Vestigial-like family member 3 (VGLL3) is a member of the VGLL family that serves as cofactors for TEA-domain transcription factors. Although VGLL3 is involved in the proliferation of cancer cells, the molecular mechanisms underlying VGLL3-mediated cell proliferation remain largely unknown. In this study, we found that stable expression of VGLL3 in human lung cancer A549 cells affects glutamine metabolism and increases their dependency on de novo nucleotide synthesis for proliferation. Mechanistically, VGLL3 was found to induce the expression of GART, which encodes a trifunctional enzyme that catalyzes de novo purine synthesis from glutamine. GART knockdown and the glycinamide ribonucleotide synthase, aminoimidazole ribonucleotide synthase, and glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase trifunctional protein (GART) inhibitor lometrexol repressed the proliferation and survival of A549 cells stably expressing VGLL3. Mesenchymal breast cancer BT549 cells and MDA-MB-231 cells showed high expression of VGLL3, and VGLL3 knockdown was found to reduce GART expression. Lometrexol also repressed the proliferation of these breast cancer cells, whereas addition of inosine monophosphate, an important metabolite downstream of GART, rescued this repression. Taken together, these results suggest that VGLL3 induces GART expression and thereby confers de novo nucleotide-dependent cell proliferation in cancer cells.