Anticancer Targets in the Glycolytic Metabolism of Tumors: A Comprehensive Review

Cancer is a metabolic disease and the solution of two metabolic equations: to produce energy with limited resources and to fulfill the biosynthetic needs of proliferating cells. Both equations are solved when glycolysis is uncoupled from oxidative phosphorylation in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, a process known as the glycolytic switch. This review addresses in a comprehensive manner the main molecular events accounting for high-rate glycolysis in cancer. It starts from modulation of the Pasteur Effect allowing short-term adaptation to hypoxia, highlights the key role exerted by the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor HIF-1 in long-term adaptation to hypoxia, and summarizes the current knowledge concerning the necessary involvement of aerobic glycolysis (the Warburg effect) in cancer cell proliferation. Based on the many observations positioning glycolysis as a central player in malignancy, the most advanced anticancer treatments targeting tumor glycolysis are briefly reviewed

Monocarboxylate transporters in cancer

Tumors are highly plastic metabolic entities composed of cancer and host cells that can adopt different metabolic phenotypes. For energy production, cancer cells may use 4 main fuels that are shuttled in 5 different metabolic pathways. Glucose fuels glycolysis that can be coupled to the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in oxidative cancer cells or to lactic fermentation in proliferating and in hypoxic cancer cells. Lipids fuel lipolysis, glutamine fuels glutaminolysis, and lactate fuels the oxidative pathway of lactate, all of which are coupled to the TCA cycle and OXPHOS for energy production. This review focuses on the latter metabolic pathway. Lactate, which is prominently produced by glycolytic cells in tumors, was only recently recognized as a major fuel for oxidative cancer cells and as a signaling agent. Its exchanges across membranes are gated by monocarboxylate transporters MCT1-4. This review summarizes the current knowledge about MCT structure, regulation and functions in cancer, with a specific focus on lactate metabolism, lactate-induced angiogenesis and MCT-dependent cancer metastasis. It also describes lactate signaling via cell surface lactate receptor GPR81. Lactate and MCTs, especially MCT1 and MCT4, are important contributors to tumor aggressiveness. Analyses of MCT-deficient (MCT and MCT) animals and (MCT-mutated) humans indicate that they are druggable, with MCT1 inhibitors being in advanced development phase and MCT4 inhibitors still in the discovery phase. Imaging lactate fluxes non-invasively using a lactate tracer for positron emission tomography would further help to identify responders to the treatments

Editorial: Metabolism Meets Function: Untangling the Cross-Talk Between Signaling and Metabolism

Tumor metabolism is a long established field in cancer biology, as the seminal findings of Otto Warburg date back to the 1920s. Since then, the discovery that oncogenes, besides promoting the Warburg effect, modulate anabolic pathways, has prompted scientists to re-evaluate the role that tumor metabolism plays in the neoplastic process. Today, metabolic reprogramming of neoplastic cells is considered a hallmark of cancer, with the discovery that flexibility in the acquisition of various cellular characteristics is supported by specific metabolic pathways. Clinical and pharmacological advances, for example the application of FDG-PET in the clinical setting (1) and the development of novel pharmacological strategies based on antimetabolites (2), provide further support and validation of the role of metabolism in cancer. Here, we present a collection of works with the aim of bringing together work from a variety of scientists across the field of tumor metabolism toward an understanding of how different metabolic pathways are activated in neoplastic and surrounding cells, the mechanisms linking altered metabolism to tumorigenesis and the potential for pharmacological applications

Annual Meeting of the International Society of Cancer Metabolism (ISCaM): Cancer Metabolism

Tumors are metabolic entities wherein cancer cells adapt their metabolism to their oncogenic agenda and microenvironmental influences. Metabolically different cancer cell subpopulations collaborate to optimize nutrient delivery with respect to immediate bioenergetic and biosynthetic needs. They can also metabolically exploit host cells. These metabolic networks are directly linked with cancer progression, treatment, resistance, and relapse. Conversely, metabolic alterations in cancer are exploited for anticancer therapy, imaging, and stratification for personalized treatments. These topics were addressed at the 4th annual meeting of the International Society of Cancer Metabolism (ISCaM) in Bertinoro, Italy, on 19-21 October 2017