Revisiting Glycogen in Cancer: A Conspicuous and Targetable Enabler of Malignant Transformation

Once thought to be exclusively a storage hub for glucose, glycogen is now known to be essential in a range of physiological processes and pathological conditions. Glycogen lies at the nexus of diverse processes that promote malignancy, including proliferation, migration, invasion, and chemoresistanc...

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Published inFrontiers in oncology Vol. 10; p. 592455
Main Authors Khan, Tashbib, Sullivan, Mitchell A., Gunter, Jennifer H., Kryza, Thomas, Lyons, Nicholas, He, Yaowu, Hooper, John D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Frontiers Media S.A 30.10.2020
Subjects
cancer metabolism
cancer therapy
chemoresistance
glycogen
immunometabolism
metabolic reprogramming
Oncology
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Summary:Once thought to be exclusively a storage hub for glucose, glycogen is now known to be essential in a range of physiological processes and pathological conditions. Glycogen lies at the nexus of diverse processes that promote malignancy, including proliferation, migration, invasion, and chemoresistance of cancer cells. It is also implicated in processes associated with the tumor microenvironment such as immune cell effector function and crosstalk with cancer-associated fibroblasts to promote metastasis. The enzymes of glycogen metabolism are dysregulated in a wide variety of malignancies, including cancers of the kidney, ovary, lung, bladder, liver, blood, and breast. Understanding and targeting glycogen metabolism in cancer presents a promising but under-explored therapeutic avenue. In this review, we summarize the current literature on the role of glycogen in cancer progression and discuss its potential as a therapeutic target for cancer treatment.
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This article was submitted to Cancer Metabolism, a section of the journal Frontiers in Oncology
Reviewed by: Domenica Scumaci, Magna Græcia University of Catanzaro, Italy; Angela Ostuni, University of Basilicata, Italy
Edited by: Fatima Baltazar, University of Minho, Portugal
ISSN:2234-943X
2234-943X
DOI:10.3389/fonc.2020.592455