Oncogenic properties, along with the metabolic reprogramming necessary for tumour growth and motility, are acquired by
cancer cells. Thus, tumour metabolism is becoming a target for
cancer therapy. Here,
cancer cell metabolism was tackled by silencing the expression of
voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1), a
mitochondrial protein that controls cell energy, as well as metabolic and survival pathways and that is often over-expressed in many
cancers. We demonstrated that silencing VDAC1 expression using human-specific
siRNA (si-hVDAC1) inhibited
cancer cell growth, both in vitro and in mouse xenograft models of human
glioblastoma (U-87MG),
lung cancer (A549), and
triple negative breast cancer (MDA-MB-231). Importantly, treatment with si-hVDAC1 induced metabolic rewiring of the
cancer cells, reversing their oncogenic properties and diverting them towards differentiated-like cells. The si-hVDAC1-treated
residual "tumour" showed reprogrammed metabolism, decreased proliferation, inhibited stemness and altered expression of genes and
proteins, leading to cell differentiation toward less malignant lineages. These VDAC1 depletion-mediated effects involved alterations in master
transcription factors associated with
cancer hallmarks, such as highly increased expression of p53 and decreased expression of HIF-1a and c-Myc that regulate signalling pathways (e.g., AMPK, mTOR). High expression of p53 and the
pro-apoptotic proteins cytochrome c and
caspases without induction of apoptosis points to functions for these
proteins in promoting cell differentiation. These results clearly show that VDAC1 depletion similarly leads to a rewiring of
cancer cell metabolism in breast and
lung cancer and
glioblastoma, regardless of origin or mutational status. This metabolic reprogramming results in cell growth arrest and inhibited tumour growth while encouraging cell differentiation, thus generating cells with decreased proliferation capacity. These results further suggest VDAC1 to be an innovative and markedly potent therapeutic target.