title: Glutamine and cancer: cell biology, physiology, and clinical opportunities.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Children's Medical Center Research Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Hensley
authors.forename: Ajla T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Wasti
authors.forename: Ralph J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: DeBerardinis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005973:Glutamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009928:Organ Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D005973:Glutamine