Regulation of mitochondrial metabolism by autophagy supports leptin-induced cell migration

Leptin is an adipokine secreted by adipose tissue, which promotes tumor progression by activating canonical signaling pathways such as MAPK/ERK. Recent studies have shown that leptin induces autophagy, and this process is involved in leptin-induced characteristics of malignancy. Autophagy is an intracellular degradation process associated with different hallmarks of cancer, such as cell survival, migration, and metabolic reprogramming. However, its relationship with metabolic reprogramming has not been clearly described. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of leptin-induced autophagy in cancer cell metabolism and its association with cellular proliferation and migration in breast cancer cells. We used ER⁺/PR⁺ and triple-negative breast cancer cell lines treated with leptin, autophagy inhibition, or mitochondrial metabolism inhibitors. Our results show that leptin induces autophagy, increases proliferation, mitochondrial ATP production and mitochondrial function in ER⁺/PR⁺ cells. Importantly, autophagy was required to maintain metabolic changes and cell proliferation driven by leptin. In triple-negative cells, leptin did not induce autophagy or cell proliferation but increased glycolytic and mitochondrial ATP production, mitochondrial function, and cell migration. In triple negative cells, autophagy was required to support metabolic changes and cell migration, and autophagy inhibition decreased cellular migration similar to mitochondrial inhibitors. In conclusion, leptin-induced autophagy supports mitochondrial metabolism in breast cancer cells as well as glycolysis in triple negative cells. Importantly, leptin-induced mitochondrial metabolism promoted cancer cell migration.