Nooren_2026_bioRxiv__

Metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer have been targeted primarily to suppress tumor growth, but less is known about the metabolic requirements for tumor cell invasion. Here we report that lipid catabolism by cytosolic and lysosomal lipases supports pancreatic cancer cell invasion through both overlapping and distinct functional and metabolic mechanisms. Lysosomal acid lipase (LAL)-dependent lipid droplet catabolism promotes invadopodia formation and stabilization, enabling extracellular matrix degradation. In addition to modulating cellular energetics, lipidomics revealed that lipid droplet catabolism regulates cholesterol and membrane phospholipid levels. Using spatially resolved biosensors and cholesterol imaging, we found that lysosomal lipid catabolism occurs at invadopodia and sustains local ATP and membrane cholesterol. These findings identify spatially organized lipid catabolism as a mechanism that couples local energetics and membrane remodeling during the earliest steps of pancreatic cancer cell invasion.