PHILADELPHIA - Cancer cells have been long known to have a "sweet tooth," using vast amounts of glucose for energy and for building blocks for cell replication.
A study by a team led by Chi Van Dang, MD, now at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, with former Johns Hopkins' colleagues and investigators Teresa Fan, Andrew Lane and Richard Higashi at the University of Louisville, KY, shows that lymph gland cancer cells (B cells) can use the amino acid glutamine in the absence of glucose for cell replication and survival, particularly under low-oxygen conditions, which are common in tumors.
In the most recent issue of Cell Metabolism, the team reports findings that are critical for developing innovative cancer therapies because they offer proof-of-concept evidence that curbing the growth of B-cell cancers can be accomplished by inhibiting a glutamine enzyme called glutaminase.
Although little is known about glutamine's role in the growth of B-cell cancer, the amino acid circulates in the blood at the highest level among the 20 amino acids that do so. The study also found that when oxygen is scarce, there is enhanced conversion of glutamine to glutathione, an important agent for controlling the accumulation of oxygen-containing, chemically reactive molecules that cause damage to normal cells.
"A broader and deeper understanding of cancer cell metabolism and cancer cells' ability to reprogram biochemical pathways under metabolic stress can be a rich ground for therapeutic approaches targeting tumor metabolism," says Dang.
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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.