Establishing pteridine metabolism in a progressive isogenic breast cancer cell model.

Folic acid is a primary driver for pteridine metabolism in human breast cell. Higher folate levels contribute to increased formation and excretion of pteridine derivatives to the extracellular media. In breast cancer, this metabolic pathway becomes dysregulated, resulting in the excretion of certain pteridine derivatives and providing in vitro evidence for the observation of elevated pteridines in the urine of breast cancer patients. Finally, this study reports a novel use of the MCF10A progressive breast cancer model for metabolomics applications that may readily be applied to other metabolites of interest.