Lipid Desaturation Is a Metabolic Marker and Therapeutic Target of Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells

The study by Cheng and colleagues uses Raman spectroscopic imaging to find that ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) contain unusually high levels of unsaturated lipids. This metabolic difference could be used as a marker for these cells and as a new target for CSC-specific therapy. The researchers report significantly increased levels of unsaturated lipids in ovarian CSCs compared to non-CSCs. Inhibition of lipid desaturases effectively eliminated CSCs, suppressed sphere formation in vitro, and blocked tumor initiation capacity in vivo. Mechanistically, the study demonstrates that nuclear factor kB (NF-kB) directly regulates the expression levels of lipid desaturases, and inhibition of desaturases blocks NF-kB signaling. Collectively, the findings reveal that increased lipid unsaturation is a metabolic marker for ovarian CSCs and a target for CSC-specific therapy.

• Ovarian cancer stem cells have high levels of unsaturated lipids.
• Blocking lipid desaturation impairs cancer stemness and tumor initiation capacity.
• The NF-κB pathway directly regulates the expression of lipid desaturases.
• Lipid desaturase inhibitors inactivate the NF-κB pathway.