Cancer cells often alter metabolism to meet the requirements for unconstrained proliferation. They also use various fuel sources to achieve the goals through shifting towards anabolic metabolism to biosynthesize the materials in support of cancer cell proliferation. The typical abnormal metabolic characteristic of cancer cells is the Warburg effect, which maintains a high level of glucose uptake and glycolysis, not mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to generate much more ATP. It also benefits cancer cell proliferation through the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) to support redox homeostasis and biosynthesis. In addition, despite the Warburg effect, more and more recent studies demonstrated that in some types of cancer cells, mitochondrial metabolism is still considered an essential element for ATP production, ROS balance, and other key metabolites.
In the past few years, the rapidly developing field of immunometabolism addresses many biological questions on immune cell development, fate, and behavior. Studies focused on the metabolism of immune cells are therefore closely associated with tumor initiation or progression. Based on the metabolic alteration, it is an enormous potential for therapeutic targeting and preclinical studies searching for potential targets. Despite multiple therapies available for targeting metabolic pathways, anti-metabolites are worthy of further study for the treatment of more cancer types. Many more novel targets are involved in glucose metabolism, immunometabolism, amino acid metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Additionally, the interaction and correlation among the related metabolic targets, biomarkers, and drugs are also paid much attention to recently. Some inhibitors or activators targeting the pivotal metabolites have been demonstrated to be a bright application prospect in the application both alone and in combination.
This Research Topic aims to uncover novel mechanistic insights on metabolism including glucose metabolism, immunometabolism, amino acid metabolism, and epigenetics involved in tumor initiation or progression. We welcome basic/clinical research and reviews related to tumor metabolism. Proteomics and metabolomics studies that reveal new molecular biological markers and targets, and connections among different metabolic pathways in tumor initiation or progression are also desirable.
We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Clinical Trial, Case Report, and Opinion articles that cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:
• New mechanism on mitochondrial metabolism on tumor initiation or progression
• New immunometabolism on tumor initiation or progression
• New epigenetic biomarker for tumor initiation or progression
• New metabolic biomarker for tumor initiation or progression
• New drugs for potential metabolism molecular targets
• Tumor metabolic clinical trials
Cancer cells often alter metabolism to meet the requirements for unconstrained proliferation. They also use various fuel sources to achieve the goals through shifting towards anabolic metabolism to biosynthesize the materials in support of cancer cell proliferation. The typical abnormal metabolic characteristic of cancer cells is the Warburg effect, which maintains a high level of glucose uptake and glycolysis, not mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to generate much more ATP. It also benefits cancer cell proliferation through the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) to support redox homeostasis and biosynthesis. In addition, despite the Warburg effect, more and more recent studies demonstrated that in some types of cancer cells, mitochondrial metabolism is still considered an essential element for ATP production, ROS balance, and other key metabolites.
In the past few years, the rapidly developing field of immunometabolism addresses many biological questions on immune cell development, fate, and behavior. Studies focused on the metabolism of immune cells are therefore closely associated with tumor initiation or progression. Based on the metabolic alteration, it is an enormous potential for therapeutic targeting and preclinical studies searching for potential targets. Despite multiple therapies available for targeting metabolic pathways, anti-metabolites are worthy of further study for the treatment of more cancer types. Many more novel targets are involved in glucose metabolism, immunometabolism, amino acid metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Additionally, the interaction and correlation among the related metabolic targets, biomarkers, and drugs are also paid much attention to recently. Some inhibitors or activators targeting the pivotal metabolites have been demonstrated to be a bright application prospect in the application both alone and in combination.
This Research Topic aims to uncover novel mechanistic insights on metabolism including glucose metabolism, immunometabolism, amino acid metabolism, and epigenetics involved in tumor initiation or progression. We welcome basic/clinical research and reviews related to tumor metabolism. Proteomics and metabolomics studies that reveal new molecular biological markers and targets, and connections among different metabolic pathways in tumor initiation or progression are also desirable.
We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Clinical Trial, Case Report, and Opinion articles that cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:
• New mechanism on mitochondrial metabolism on tumor initiation or progression
• New immunometabolism on tumor initiation or progression
• New epigenetic biomarker for tumor initiation or progression
• New metabolic biomarker for tumor initiation or progression
• New drugs for potential metabolism molecular targets
• Tumor metabolic clinical trials
