Altered cellular metabolism in gliomas — an emerging landscape of actionable co-dependency targets

• Published in: Nature reviews. Cancer Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 57 - 70
• Main Authors: Bi, Junfeng, Chowdhry, Sudhir, Wu, Sihan, Zhang, Wenjing, Masui, Kenta, Mischel, Paul S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.01.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/67/1922; 631/67/2327; Amino acids; Animals; Biomarkers; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain Neoplasms - diagnosis; Brain Neoplasms - etiology; Brain Neoplasms - metabolism; Brain Neoplasms - therapy; Brain tumors; Cancer Research; Disease Management; Disease Susceptibility; Drug Discovery; Energy Metabolism - drug effects; Energy Metabolism - genetics; Genetic aspects; Genetic Variation; Genomics; Genotypes; Glioma; Glioma - diagnosis; Glioma - etiology; Glioma - metabolism; Glioma - therapy; Gliomas; Humans; Innovations; Metabolism; Metabolomics; Metabolomics - methods; Molecular modelling; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Review Article; Signal Transduction; Tumor microenvironment
• ISSN: 1474-175X; 1474-1768; 1474-1768
• DOI: 10.1038/s41568-019-0226-5

Altered cellular metabolism is a hallmark of gliomas. Propelled by a set of recent technological advances, new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying glioma metabolism are rapidly emerging. In this Review, we focus on the dynamic nature of glioma metabolism and how it is shaped by the interaction between tumour genotype and brain microenvironment. Recent advances integrating metabolomics with genomics are discussed, yielding new insight into the mechanisms that drive glioma pathogenesis. Studies that shed light on interactions between the tumour microenvironment and tumour genotype are highlighted, providing important clues as to how gliomas respond to and adapt to their changing tissue and biochemical contexts. Finally, a road map for the discovery of potential new glioma drug targets is suggested, with the goal of translating these new insights about glioma metabolism into clinical benefits for patients. This Review discusses altered cellular metabolism in gliomas, with particular regard to the interaction between tumour genotype and the brain microenvironment, and how advances in studying glioma metabolism have contributed to the discovery of potential drug targets.