Macropinocytosis enables metabolic recycling of extracellular DNA in cancer cells

Abstract

Avid nutrient consumption is a metabolic hallmark of cancer and leads to regional depletion of key metabolites within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Cancer cells consequently employ diverse strategies to acquire the fuels needed for growth, including bulk uptake of the extracellular medium by macropinocytosis. Here, we show that breast and pancreatic cancer cells macropinocytically internalize extracellular DNA (exDNA), an abundant component of the TME, and deliver it to lysosomes for degradation. This provides a supply of nucleotides that sustains growth when de novo biosynthesis is impaired by glutamine restriction or pharmacological blockade. Mechanistically, this process is dependent on the non-redundant lysosomal equilibrative nucleoside transporter SLC29A3 (ENT3), which mediates the export of nucleosides from the lysosomal lumen into the cytosol. Accordingly, genetic ablation of SLC29A3 or pharmacological disruption of lysosomal function prevents exDNA scavenging and potently sensitizes breast tumors to antimetabolite chemotherapy in vivo. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized nutrient acquisition pathway through which cancer cells recycle exDNA into metabolic building blocks and highlight SLC29A3 as a mediator of metabolic flexibility and a potential target to improve chemotherapy response.