Abstract 3798: Acetate supplementation eliminates hypoxia mediated resistance to differentiation therapy in neuroblastoma cells

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood. Retinoic acid (RA) leads to cell cycle arrest and induces cell differentiation in neuroblastoma cells, thus it has been used to treat neuroblastoma as differentiating agent for decades. However, therapy resistance often occurs and the overall survival remains low. Hypoxia, a common metabolic stress existing in tumor microenvironment, increases tumor resistance to RA by promoting dedifferentiation of neuroblastoma cells. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms underlying hypoxia-mediated therapy resistance and develop therapeutic approach to improve the response to differentiation therapy. By RNA-Seq analysis, we identified a group of neuron-specific differentiation markers that induced by RA treatment, while the induction was diminished under hypoxia. Associated with the silencing of differentiation markers expression, a significant loss of histone acetylation of H3K9, H3K27 and total H3 was observed under hypoxia. Metabolomics analysis indicated hypoxia inhibited mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to decrease intracellular acetyl-CoA and citrate, which provides acetyl-CoA for histone acetyltransferase. Importantly, acetate supplementation restored cellular acetyl-CoA level, histone acetylation, and the expression of differentiation markers under hypoxia. Differentiation morphology was also restored by acetate supplementation under hypoxia. In conclusion, our finding suggested hypoxia contributed to the resistance to RA-induced differentiation by reprogramming cellular metabolism and inducing histone hypoacetylation. Acetate supplementation is an efficacious therapeutic approach to improve the sensitivity of hypoxic tumor to RA-based differentiation therapy. Citation Format: Yang Li, Yiren Zhou, John M. Maris, Amato J. Giaccia, Jiangbin Ye. Acetate supplementation eliminates hypoxia mediated resistance to differentiation therapy in neuroblastoma cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3798.