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Systems-level metabolic flux profiling identifies fatty acid synthesis as a target for antiviral therapy

Nature Biotechnology volume 26, pages 1179–1186 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Viruses rely on the metabolic network of their cellular hosts to provide energy and building blocks for viral replication. We developed a flux measurement approach based on liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to quantify changes in metabolic activity induced by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). This approach reliably elucidated fluxes in cultured mammalian cells by monitoring metabolome labeling kinetics after feeding cells 13C-labeled forms of glucose and glutamine. Infection with HCMV markedly upregulated flux through much of the central carbon metabolism, including glycolysis. Particularly notable increases occurred in flux through the tricarboxylic acid cycle and its efflux to the fatty acid biosynthesis pathway. Pharmacological inhibition of fatty acid biosynthesis suppressed the replication of both HCMV and influenza A, another enveloped virus. These results show that fatty acid synthesis is essential for the replication of two divergent enveloped viruses and that systems-level metabolic flux profiling can identify metabolic targets for antiviral therapy.

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Figure 1: Flux profiling of uninfected and HCMV-infected cells.
Figure 2: Profiling of TCA cycle fluxes in uninfected and HCMV-infected cells.
Figure 3: Metabolite concentrations and fluxes in uninfected and HCMV-infected confluent human fibroblasts.
Figure 4: HCMV induces lipogenesis.
Figure 5: Effect of pharmacological inhibitors of fatty acid biosynthesis on HCMV and influenza replication.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Metabolomics Roadmap initiative (AI068678), NIH grants CA82396 and CA85786, and the NIH Center for Systems Biology at Princeton University (5 P50 GM071508). Development of the fluxomic technology was supported by the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award program (MCB-0643859), the Beckman Foundation, the American Heart Association (0635188N) and the National Science Foundation Dynamic Data-Driven Applications Systems program (CNS-0549181). J. Munger was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society.

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Author notes

  1. Joshua Munger and Bryson D Bennett: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology, Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Joshua Munger & Thomas Shenk

  2. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Ave, Box 712, Rochester, New York 14642, USA,

    Joshua Munger & Jessica McArdle

  3. Department of Chemistry and Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Carl Icahn Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Bryson D Bennett, Anuraag Parikh & Joshua D Rabinowitz

  4. Department of Chemistry, Frick Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Xiao-Jiang Feng & Herschel A Rabitz

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Contributions

J. Munger conducted experiments, analyzed data, conceived ideas and prepared the manuscript; B.D.B. conducted experiments, analyzed data, conceived ideas and prepared the manuscript; A.P. analyzed data; X.-J.F. conceived ideas and analyzed data; J. McArdle conducted experiments and analyzed data; H.A.R. conceived ideas; T.S. conceived ideas and prepared the manuscript; and J.D.R. conceived ideas, analyzed data and prepared the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Joshua D Rabinowitz.

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Munger, J., Bennett, B., Parikh, A. et al. Systems-level metabolic flux profiling identifies fatty acid synthesis as a target for antiviral therapy. Nat Biotechnol 26, 1179–1186 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.1500

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