脂肪酸代谢异常在肿瘤发生发展过程中扮演重要的角色。脂肪酸代谢相关基因的表达异常导致脂肪酸代谢机制的改变，从而促进肿瘤的恶性表型。然而鼻咽癌细胞脂肪酸代谢的改变及其具体机制尚不明确。我们的前期研究发现鼻咽癌细胞和组织中存在脂肪酸异常堆积现象，进而通过筛选鼻咽癌中异常表达的脂肪酸代谢相关基因，发现ACAA1基因在鼻咽癌中转录失活，在鼻咽癌细胞中恢复其表达可抑制细胞增殖和体内成瘤能力，提示ACAA1可能是鼻咽癌中参与脂肪酸代谢的候选肿瘤抑制基因。本项目拟进一步验证ACAA1基因在鼻咽癌中的异常表达，评价ACAA1与肿瘤细胞脂肪酸代谢失调控的关联，探索ACAA1通过影响过氧化物酶体β氧化从而调控PTEN-Akt信号传导通路、影响细胞增殖的可能机制。由此阐明ACAA1基因在鼻咽癌发生发展过程中可能扮演的角色及可能的分子机制，评价其作为新的鼻咽癌候选肿瘤标记物和生物治疗靶标的可行性。

Aberrant fatty acid metabolism plays an important role in the carcinogenesis of cancer. Abnormal expression of genes involving in the fatty acid metabolic pathway leads to fatty acid metabolism dysregulation, one of the molecular mechanisms that promotes a malignant phenotype. However, the altered fatty acid metabolism in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has not been fully elucidated. In this respect, we screened a number of abnormal expression of genes functioned in fatty acid metabolism in our previous work. From these, we found ACAA1 gene was transcriptional inactivated in NPC, which may be a key factor that affect the peroxisomal fatty acid metabolism. In this study, we intends to further validate abnormal expression of ACAA1 in NPC, evaluate the overall fatty acid metabolism regulated by ACAA1, and explore how ACAA1 control the proliferation of NPC cells by influencing the PTEN-Akt signaling pathway. Thus we could clarify the possible role and molecular mechanism of ACAA1 in the development and progression of NPC, and provide new biomarker and treatment target for NPC.