{"title":"O-GlcNAcylation of UGDH regulates its activity and remodels the extracellular matrix to facilitate tumor growth.","authors":"Bingyi Lin, Junjie Zhou, Didi Geng, Siyuan Chai, Xuanming Zhang, Zengle Zhang, Jiating Hu, Qin Tang, Xiaoming Chen, Wen Yi, Liming Wu","doi":"10.1038/s41418-025-01591-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The tumor microenvironment is an immunosuppressive niche that contributes to tumor growth by downregulating immune cell functions or restraining immune cell infiltration. The underlying mechanisms are not still poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAcylation), a prevalent form of protein glycosylation, contributes to establishing the immunosuppressive niche through regulating the metabolic and non-metabolic functions of uridine diphosphate glucose dehydrogenase (UGDH). Tumor cells carrying O-GlcNAcylation-deficient UGDH showed reduced xenograft tumor growth and improved survival in mice. Cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) analysis suggests UGDH O-GlcNAcylation negatively correlates with cytotoxic CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell infiltration. O-GlcNAcylation on serine 350 of UGDH is located within the UDP-binding domain, and the subsequent extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations reveal that O-GlcNAcylation reinforces hydrogen-bonding interaction and enzymatic activity of UGDH, leading to enhanced hyaluronic acid (HA) synthesis in the extracellular matrix. Moreover, O-GlcNAcylation of UGDH reduces CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell infiltration by decreasing the chemokine CXCL10 expression. Specifically, O-GlcNAcylation enhances UGDH interaction with KPNA2 to compete with STAT1, and suppresses translocation of STAT1 into the nucleus, thereby transcriptionally downregulating CXCL10 expression. Thus, our study identifies UGDH O-GlcNAcylation as a key regulator of tumor immunity and further suggests a potential strategy for enhancing immunotherapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":9731,"journal":{"name":"Cell Death and Differentiation","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":15.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cell Death and Differentiation","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-025-01591-8","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The tumor microenvironment is an immunosuppressive niche that contributes to tumor growth by downregulating immune cell functions or restraining immune cell infiltration. The underlying mechanisms are not still poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAcylation), a prevalent form of protein glycosylation, contributes to establishing the immunosuppressive niche through regulating the metabolic and non-metabolic functions of uridine diphosphate glucose dehydrogenase (UGDH). Tumor cells carrying O-GlcNAcylation-deficient UGDH showed reduced xenograft tumor growth and improved survival in mice. Cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) analysis suggests UGDH O-GlcNAcylation negatively correlates with cytotoxic CD8+ T cell infiltration. O-GlcNAcylation on serine 350 of UGDH is located within the UDP-binding domain, and the subsequent extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations reveal that O-GlcNAcylation reinforces hydrogen-bonding interaction and enzymatic activity of UGDH, leading to enhanced hyaluronic acid (HA) synthesis in the extracellular matrix. Moreover, O-GlcNAcylation of UGDH reduces CD8+ T cell infiltration by decreasing the chemokine CXCL10 expression. Specifically, O-GlcNAcylation enhances UGDH interaction with KPNA2 to compete with STAT1, and suppresses translocation of STAT1 into the nucleus, thereby transcriptionally downregulating CXCL10 expression. Thus, our study identifies UGDH O-GlcNAcylation as a key regulator of tumor immunity and further suggests a potential strategy for enhancing immunotherapy.
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