REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicMetabolic Cell Death in Cancer: Innovative Therapeutic Avenues for Cancer TreatmentView all 4 articles
Recent progress in serine metabolism reprogramming in tumors and strategies for serine Deprivation
Provisionally accepted
Huimei Liu1
Yanping Liu2*- 1Tarim University, Alar, Xinjiang, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
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Tumor cells undergo extensive metabolic reprogramming during malignant proliferation, with serine—a key nonessential amino acid—playing multiple roles in tumor metabolism. To maintain high serine levels, tumor cells upregulate phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase to enhance endogenous synthesis and concurrently increase exogenous uptake. Serine deprivation demonstrates antitumor potential across various malignancies; however, its clinical application remains limited by inadequate tumor selectivity and systemic toxicity. Recent advances in nanodelivery systems offer precise strategies to modulate tumor serine metabolism. Serine deprivation via these systems improves tumor-specific targeting while minimizing off-target toxicity to normal tissues. Therefore, this review aims to outline serine metabolism and its regulatory networks, evaluate the therapeutic potential and limitations of serine deprivation, and highlight recent advances in nanodelivery strategies targeting serine metabolism for cancer therapy, thereby providing insights for the development of novel anticancer approaches.
Keywords: metabolic reprogramming, serine synthesis pathway, Phosphoglycerate Dehydrogenase, Serine deprivation, nanodelivery systems
Received: 20 Jul 2025; Accepted: 20 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanping Liu, 203715@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
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