Glutamine Reliance in Cell Metabolism

Overview

Journal Exp Mol Med

Specialties Biochemistry
Molecular Biology

Date 2020 Sep 18

PMID 32943735

Citations 338

Authors

Hee Chan Yoo

Ya Chun Yu

Yulseung Sung

Jung Min Han

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

As knowledge of cell metabolism has advanced, glutamine has been considered an important amino acid that supplies carbon and nitrogen to fuel biosynthesis. A recent study provided a new perspective on mitochondrial glutamine metabolism, offering mechanistic insights into metabolic adaptation during tumor hypoxia, the emergence of drug resistance, and glutaminolysis-induced metabolic reprogramming and presenting metabolic strategies to target glutamine metabolism in cancer cells. In this review, we introduce the various biosynthetic and bioenergetic roles of glutamine based on the compartmentalization of glutamine metabolism to explain why cells exhibit metabolic reliance on glutamine. Additionally, we examined whether glutamine derivatives contribute to epigenetic regulation associated with tumorigenesis. In addition, in discussing glutamine transporters, we propose a metabolic target for therapeutic intervention in cancer.

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