Targeting Glutamine Induces Apoptosis: A Cancer Therapy Approach

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 16; no. 9; pp. 22830 - 22855
• Main Authors: Chen, Lian, Cui, Hengmin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 22.09.2015; MDPI
• Subjects: Amino acids; Animals; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - drug effects; cancer; Cancer therapies; Enzyme Inhibitors - pharmacology; Enzyme Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; glutaminase; Glutaminase - antagonists & inhibitors; Glutaminase - genetics; Glutaminase - metabolism; Glutamine - metabolism; Humans; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 - genetics; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 - metabolism; Metabolism; Neoplasms - genetics; Neoplasms - metabolism; Neoplasms - pathology; Neoplasms - therapy; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc - genetics; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc - metabolism; ras Proteins - genetics; ras Proteins - metabolism; Review; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 - genetics; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 - metabolism; glutamine metabolism; glutaminase; apoptosis; cancer
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms160922830

Glutamine metabolism has been proved to be dysregulated in many cancer cells, and is essential for proliferation of most cancer cells, which makes glutamine an appealing target for cancer therapy. In order to be well used by cells, glutamine must be transported to cells by specific transporters and converted to glutamate by glutaminase. There are currently several drugs that target glutaminase under development or clinical trials. Also, glutamine metabolism restriction has been proved to be effective in inhibiting tumor growth both in vivo and vitro through inducing apoptosis, growth arrest and/or autophagy. Here, we review recent researches about glutamine metabolism in cancer, and cell death induced by targeting glutamine, and their potential roles in cancer therapy.