Glutamine and cancer: cell biology, physiology, and clinical opportunities
Open accessAbstract
Glutamine is an abundant and versatile nutrient that participates in energy formation, redox homeostasis, macromolecular synthesis, and signaling in cancer cells. These characteristics make glutamine metabolism an appealing target for new clinical strategies to detect, monitor, and treat cancer. Here we review the metabolic functions of glutamine as a super nutrient and the surprising roles of glutamine in supporting the biological hallmarks of malignancy. We also review recent efforts in imaging and therapeutics to exploit tumor cell glutamine dependence, discuss some of the challenges in this arena, and suggest a disease-focused paradigm to deploy these emerging approaches.
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Depending on tissue of origin, cancer cells use various routes of glutamine metabolism; some require exogenous glutamine for malignant proliferation, whereas others do not and can synthesize it de novo.
“Furthermore, depending on the tissue of origin, cancer cells use various routes of glutamine metabolism. Some have been shown to require an exogenous glutamine supply for malignant proliferation [71,72], whereas others do not [73] and can synthesize it de novo [74].”
From HIF-1-Independent Mechanisms Regulating Metabolic Adaptation in Hypoxic Cancer Cells (2021) · cites this paper as [74]
Glutamine supports mitochondrial oxidative metabolism when pyruvate derived from glucose is converted into lactate and secreted.
“The major findings are that aerobic glycolysis is not a symptom of impaired mitochondrial function, and that glutamine supports mitochondrial oxidative metabolism when pyruvate derived from glucose is converted into lactate and secreted2–4.”
From Glutamine reliance in cell metabolism (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
Aerobic glycolysis is not a symptom of impaired mitochondrial function.
“The major findings are that aerobic glycolysis is not a symptom of impaired mitochondrial function, and that glutamine supports mitochondrial oxidative metabolism when pyruvate derived from glucose is converted into lactate and secreted2–4.”
From Glutamine reliance in cell metabolism (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
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References 81 · Cited by 1,262
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Maher EA, et al. Metabolism of [U-13C]glucose in human brain tumors in vivo. NMR Biomed. 2012; 25(11):1234-1244.
- Rajagopalan KN, DeBerardinis RJ. Role of gluta- mine in cancer: therapeutic and imaging implica- tions. J Nucl Med. 2011;52(7):1005-1008.
- Koglin N, et al. Specific PET imaging of xC -trans- porter activity using a 18 F-labeled glutamate deriva- tive reveals a dominant pathway in tumor metabo- lism. Clin Cancer Res. 2011;17(18):6000-6011.
- Authors
- Hensley, C. T., Wasti, A. T., & DeBerardinis, R. J.
- Affiliations
- Children's Medical Center (US)
- Children's Medical Center (IR)
- Corresponding author
- DeBerardinis, Ralph J.
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Investigation
- Published
- 2013-09-03
- Volume
- 123
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 3678-3684
- ISSN
- 0021-9738 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3754270
- OpenAlex
- W2086816631
- Cited by
- 1,262
- References
- 81
- Citations by year
- 2026: 58 · 2025: 107 · 2024: 101 · 2023: 121 · 2022: 112 · 2021: 119 · 2020: 108 · 2019: 97 · 2018: 91 · 2017: 105 · 2016: 109 · 2015: 91 · 2014: 41 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 6.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Investigation (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA157996)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007062)
- 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
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Cancer Research and Treatments
- Keywords
- glutamine metabolism, cancer metabolism, redox homeostasis, energy metabolism, macromolecular synthesis, cancer cell signaling, cancer hallmarks, metabolic reprogramming
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Energy Metabolism, Glutamine, Humans, Neoplasms, Organ Specificity, Biomarkers, Tumor, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Molecular Targeted Therapy
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