Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy

© 2016 The Author(s). Cancer Stem cells (CSCs) are a unipotent cell population present within the tumour cell mass. CSCs are known to be highly chemo-resistant, and in recent years, they have gained intense interest as key tumour initiating cells that may also play an integral role in tumour recurre...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Deshmukh, A., Deshpande, K., Arfuso, F., Newsholme, P., Dharmarajan, Arunasalam
Format: Journal Article
Published: BioMed Central Ltd. 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29199
_version_ 1848752740050665472
author Deshmukh, A.
Deshpande, K.
Arfuso, F.
Newsholme, P.
Dharmarajan, Arunasalam
author_facet Deshmukh, A.
Deshpande, K.
Arfuso, F.
Newsholme, P.
Dharmarajan, Arunasalam
author_sort Deshmukh, A.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2016 The Author(s). Cancer Stem cells (CSCs) are a unipotent cell population present within the tumour cell mass. CSCs are known to be highly chemo-resistant, and in recent years, they have gained intense interest as key tumour initiating cells that may also play an integral role in tumour recurrence following chemotherapy. Cancer cells have the ability to alter their metabolism in order to fulfil bio-energetic and biosynthetic requirements. They are largely dependent on aerobic glycolysis for their energy production and also are associated with increased fatty acid synthesis and increased rates of glutamine utilisation. Emerging evidence has shown that therapeutic resistance to cancer treatment may arise due to dysregulation in glucose metabolism, fatty acid synthesis, and glutaminolysis. To propagate their lethal effects and maintain survival, tumour cells alter their metabolic requirements to ensure optimal nutrient use for their survival, evasion from host immune attack, and proliferation. It is now evident that cancer cells metabolise glutamine to grow rapidly because it provides the metabolic stimulus for required energy and precursors for synthesis of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. It can also regulate the activities of some of the signalling pathways that control the proliferation of cancer cells. This review describes the key metabolic pathways required by CSCs to maintain a survival advantage and highlights how a combined approach of targeting cellular metabolism in conjunction with the use of chemotherapeutic drugs may provide a promising strategy to overcome therapeutic resistance and therefore aid in cancer therapy.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:13:25Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-29199
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:13:25Z
publishDate 2016
publisher BioMed Central Ltd.
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-291992017-09-13T15:23:05Z Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy Deshmukh, A. Deshpande, K. Arfuso, F. Newsholme, P. Dharmarajan, Arunasalam © 2016 The Author(s). Cancer Stem cells (CSCs) are a unipotent cell population present within the tumour cell mass. CSCs are known to be highly chemo-resistant, and in recent years, they have gained intense interest as key tumour initiating cells that may also play an integral role in tumour recurrence following chemotherapy. Cancer cells have the ability to alter their metabolism in order to fulfil bio-energetic and biosynthetic requirements. They are largely dependent on aerobic glycolysis for their energy production and also are associated with increased fatty acid synthesis and increased rates of glutamine utilisation. Emerging evidence has shown that therapeutic resistance to cancer treatment may arise due to dysregulation in glucose metabolism, fatty acid synthesis, and glutaminolysis. To propagate their lethal effects and maintain survival, tumour cells alter their metabolic requirements to ensure optimal nutrient use for their survival, evasion from host immune attack, and proliferation. It is now evident that cancer cells metabolise glutamine to grow rapidly because it provides the metabolic stimulus for required energy and precursors for synthesis of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. It can also regulate the activities of some of the signalling pathways that control the proliferation of cancer cells. This review describes the key metabolic pathways required by CSCs to maintain a survival advantage and highlights how a combined approach of targeting cellular metabolism in conjunction with the use of chemotherapeutic drugs may provide a promising strategy to overcome therapeutic resistance and therefore aid in cancer therapy. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29199 10.1186/s12943-016-0555-x BioMed Central Ltd. fulltext
spellingShingle Deshmukh, A.
Deshpande, K.
Arfuso, F.
Newsholme, P.
Dharmarajan, Arunasalam
Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy
title Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy
title_full Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy
title_fullStr Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy
title_full_unstemmed Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy
title_short Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy
title_sort cancer stem cell metabolism: a potential target for cancer therapy
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29199