Choline metabolism drives metastasis in BRCA1-deficient ovarian cancers by activating FAM3C

BRCA1 mutations are a hallmark of hereditary ovarian cancer, strongly linked to deficiencies in homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair and impaired DNA replication fork protection. However, its roles in cancer progression beyond maintaining genomic integrity remain poorly understood. Here, through metabolomics approaches, we find that BRCA1-deficiency strikingly increases choline metabolism. Loss of BRCA1 promotes choline uptake through upregulating choline transporter-like protein 4 (CTL4). BRCA1 directly binds and recruits EZH2-mediated H3K27Me3 deposition to the CTL4 promoter. CTL4 is therefore overexpressed in ovarian cancer tissues with BRCA1 mutations. Furthermore, BRCA1-deficiency significantly promotes ovarian cancer invasion, while inhibition of CTL4 reverses the high metastatic potential of BRCA1-deficient ovarian cancer cells, suggesting the functionality and specificity of CTL4 as a therapeutic target. Additionally, we discover that phosphocholine, the choline metabolite increased by CTL4 overexpression, interacts with and stabilizes the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition inducer FAM3C in BRCA1-deficient ovarian cancer cells. Importantly, we identify a potent CTL4 inhibitor, DT-13, which significantly reduces choline metabolism and effectively suppresses metastasis in BRCA1-deficient ovarian cancers. Therefore, our study uncovers a mechanism underlying metastasis in BRCA1-deficient cancers and identifies CTL4 as a therapeutic target for metastatic ovarian cancer patients with BRCA1 mutations. BRCA1 is known to play a role in homologous recombination DNA repair and DNA replication fork protection. Here, the authors discover that BRCA1 loss drives CTL4-dependent choline uptake and phosphocholine-mediated stabilization of FAM3C, promoting ovarian cancer metastasis.