Abstract 5850: Multiomics analysis unravels tumor metabolic reprogramming and potential resistance mechanism(s) to curative therapy in TNBC

Abstract Drug resistance is the leading cause of treatment failure to completely eliminate viable tumor cells in ~40% of patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Making a major impact on the treatment and prognosis for TNBC patients requires a better understanding of drug resistance mechanism(s). Combining clinical data with high-throughput metabolomic and proteomic analyses, we probed the molecular basis for chemotherapy resistance in treatment-naive TNBC primary tumors, reflected by pathological complete response (pCR) and non-pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Metabolic profiling uncovered that glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) co-exist in TNBC primary tumors compared to benign lesions regardless of pCR status, indicating metabolic reprogramming. However, non-pCR tumors were more enriched in OXPHOS and less in glycolysis relative to pCR tumors, pointing to the potential importance of OXPHOS in drug resistance. Moreover, parallel proteomic profiling of these same TNBC tumors supported the results from metabolic profiling, showing that OXPHOS was indeed highly enriched at the protein level, and may be regulated by SIRT5-mediated sirtuin signaling. In alignment with these findings, non-pCR tumors were abundantly enriched in immune-inhibitory metabolites that may be due to the products of SIRT5-mediated mitochondrial metabolism. Thus, these findings led me to hypothesize that SIRT5 may play an important role in chemoresistance through regulation of mitochondrial metabolism and ROS detoxification. Together, the metabolite resulted from SIRT5-mediated mitochondrial metabolism led to the suppression of immune cell infiltration in non-pCR tumors. Understanding SIRT5-mediated chemoresistance mechanism may uncover a metabolic and therapeutic vulnerability to resistant TNBCs. Citation Format: Zuen Ren, Kiran Kurmi, Robert Morris, Shakchhi Joshi, Eric Zaniewski, Johannes Kreuzer, Gabrielle Elena Gioia, Veerle I. Bossuyt, Brian N. Dontchos, Gary X. Wang, Shinn-Huey S. Chou, Laura M. Spring, Wilhelm Haas, Marcia C. Haigis, Leif W. Ellisen. Multiomics analysis unravels tumor metabolic reprogramming and potential resistance mechanism(s) to curative therapy in TNBC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 5850.