Metabolic collateral lethal target identification reveals MTHFD2 paralogue dependency in ovarian cancer

Recurrent loss-of-function deletions cause frequent inactivation of tumour suppressor genes but often also involve the collateral deletion of essential genes in chromosomal proximity, engendering dependence on paralogues that maintain similar function. Although these paralogues are attractive anticancer targets, no methodology exists to uncover such collateral lethal genes. Here we report a framework for collateral lethal gene identification via metabolic fluxes, CLIM, and use it to reveal MTHFD2 as a collateral lethal gene in UQCR11-deleted ovarian tumours. We show that MTHFD2 has a non-canonical oxidative function to provide mitochondrial NAD(+), and demonstrate the regulation of systemic metabolic activity by the paralogue metabolic pathway maintaining metabolic flux compensation. This UQCR11-MTHFD2 collateral lethality is confirmed in vivo, with MTHFD2 inhibition leading to complete remission of UQCR11-deleted ovarian tumours. Using CLIM's machine learning and genome-scale metabolic flux analysis, we elucidate the broad efficacy of targeting MTHFD2 despite distinct cancer genetic profiles co-occurring with UQCR11 deletion and irrespective of stromal compositions of tumours. Achreja et al. develop a framework to identify collateral lethalities in cancer, uncovering MTHFD2 as a collateral lethal gene in UQCR11-deficient ovarian tumours.

Automated summary

In this study, the researchers develop a framework called CLIM to identify collateral lethal genes using metabolic fluxes, and they use it to discover MTHFD2 as a collateral lethal gene in UQCR11-deleted ovarian tumors. They demonstrate that MTHFD2 plays a non-canonical oxidative role by providing mitochondrial NAD(+) and show the regulation of systemic metabolic activity by the paralogue metabolic pathway. The researchers also confirm the UQCR11-MTHFD2 collateral lethality in vivo, with complete remission of UQCR11-deleted ovarian tumors upon MTHFD2 inhibition.