Dysregulated ceramides metabolism by fatty acid 2-hydroxylase exposes a metabolic vulnerability to target cancer metastasis

Whereas it is appreciated that cancer cells rewire lipid metabolism to survive and propagate, the roles of lipid metabolism in metastasis remain largely unknown. In this study, using esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) as a pulmonary metastasis model, we find that the enzyme fatty acid 2-hydroxylase (FA2H), which catalyzes the hydroxylation of free fatty acids (FAs), is enriched in a subpopulation of ESCC cells with high metastatic potential, and that FA2H knockdown markedly mitigates metastatic lesions. Moreover, increased FA2H expression is positively associated with poor survival in patients with ESCC. Lipidomics analysis identifies that two dihydroceramides—Cer(d18:0/24:0) and Cer(d18:0/24:1)—are increased in FA2H-depleted metastasizing ESCC cells. Upon administration, Cer(d18:0/24:0) and Cer(d18:0/24:1) impair the formation of overt metastases in a mouse experimental metastasis model. Then, forkhead box protein C2 (FOXC2) and FA2H are found to be co-upregulated in metastatic ESCC cell populations and ESCC specimens, and FA2H expression is further experimentally verified to be transcriptionally induced by FOXC2, which is boosted per se by tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα), a critical pro-metastasis cytokine in the tumour microenvironment, in metastasizing cells. Together, these results demonstrate that TNFα-FOXC2-FA2H is a novel signaling axis to promote metastasis, and its downstream dihydroceramide products could be promising drugs to intervene in metastasis.