The DOI matches its Crossref record; 43 of the 43 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Glutamine synthetase activity fuels nucleotide biosynthesis and supports growth of glutamine-restricted glioblastoma
Open accessAbstract
L-Glutamine (Gln) functions physiologically to balance the carbon and nitrogen requirements of tissues. It has been proposed that in cancer cells undergoing aerobic glycolysis, accelerated anabolism is sustained by Gln-derived carbons, which replenish the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle (anaplerosis). However, it is shown here that in glioblastoma (GBM) cells, almost half of the Gln-derived glutamate (Glu) is secreted and does not enter the TCA cycle, and that inhibiting glutaminolysis does not affect cell proliferation. Moreover, Gln-starved cells are not rescued by TCA cycle replenishment. Instead, the conversion of Glu to Gln by glutamine synthetase (GS; cataplerosis) confers Gln prototrophy, and fuels de novo purine biosynthesis. In both orthotopic GBM models and in patients, (13)C-glucose tracing showed that GS produces Gln from TCA-cycle-derived carbons. Finally, the Gln required for the growth of GBM tumours is contributed only marginally by the circulation, and is mainly either autonomously synthesized by GS-positive glioma cells, or supplied by astrocytes.
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“The evidence for the necessity of glutamine for cancer progression is conflicted: some studies have reported that tumours can grow well without glutamine [66,67], while others showed that cancers are glutamine-addicted [68,69,70].”
From HIF-1-Independent Mechanisms Regulating Metabolic Adaptation in Hypoxic Cancer Cells (2021) · cites this paper as [67]
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“Furthermore, human glioblastoma cells do not rely much on circulating glutamine for proliferation but rather more on glutamate to synthesize glutamine via glutamine synthetase to fuel purine biosynthesis193.”
From Glutamine reliance in cell metabolism (2020) · cites this paper as [193]
In the citing paper
“Furthermore, human brain tumors are highly glutamine avid (Venneti et al., 2015) (Tardito et al., 2015).”
From Transaminase Inhibition by 2-Hydroxyglutarate Impairs Glutamate Biosynthesis and Redox Homeostasis in Glioma (2018) · cites this paper as Tardito et al., 2015
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“Glutamine can either be used as an important anaplerotic substrate in the TCA cycle, a carbon and nitrogen donor, or for production of purine and pyrimidine nucleotides that are necessary for DNA replication (216).”
From Metabolic Flexibility as an Adaptation to Energy Resources and Requirements in Health and Disease (2018) · cites this paper as [216]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Tardito, S., Oudin, A., Ahmed, S. U., Fack, F., Keunen, O., Zheng, L., Miletic, H., Sakariassen, P. Ø., Weinstock, A., Wagner, A., Lindsay, S. L., Hock, A. K., Barnett, S. C., Ruppin, E., Mørkve, S. H., Lund-Johansen, M., Chalmers, A. J., Bjerkvig, R., Niclou, S. P., & Gottlieb, E.
- Affiliations
- Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute (GB)
- Luxembourg Institute of Health (LU)
- University of Glasgow (GB)
- University of Bergen (NO)
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Haukeland University Hospital (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Gottlieb, Eyal
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Cell Biology
- Published
- 2015-11-23
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1556-1568
- ISSN
- 1465-7392 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4679
- PMC
- PMC4663685
- OpenAlex
- W2174361280
- Cited by
- 557
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 13.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Cell Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Sunderland Repository (University of Sunderland) (acceptedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Luxembourg) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Cancer Research UK (A18278, 18278, A12477, 18274)
- Medical Research Council (MR/J004731/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Amino Acid Enzymes and Metabolism
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Glioma Diagnosis and Treatment
- Keywords
- glutamine synthetase, glioblastoma, glutamine starvation, glutamate, purine biosynthesis, cataplerosis, anaplerosis, TCA cycle, glutamine metabolism, astrocytes, tumor growth, 13C glucose tracing
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Astrocytes, Brain Neoplasms, Cells, Cultured, Citric Acid Cycle, Female, Glioblastoma, Glutamine, Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase, Humans, Male, Models, Biological, Nucleotides, Transplantation, Heterologous, Neoplastic Stem Cells, Blotting, Western, Mice, SCID, Mice, Inbred NOD, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Glutamic Acid, Coculture Techniques, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Proliferation
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