Noriko Mori1, Flonne Wildes1, Kristine Glunde1, 2, Catherine Hudson3, Zaver M. Bhujwalla1, 2
1JHU ICMIC Program, The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; 3Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Ltd, Abingdon, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
High choline kinase (Chk) expression and increased phosphocholine (PC) levels are frequently observed in aggressive cancers. Unraveling the role of Chk and PC will provide new insights in the malignant phenotype and lead to the development of treatments targeting this enzyme and choline metabolism. We previously observed that downregulating Chk expression with siRNA resulted in a significant reduction of PC and proliferation in breast cancer cells. Here we have found that a potent inhibitor of Chk activity reduced PC without altering cell proliferation, pointing to the importance of the enzyme, but not necessarily its activity, in breast cancer cell survival.