Cancer metabolism in space and time: Beyond the Warburg effect.
Altered metabolism in cancer cells is pivotal for tumor growth, most notably by providing energy, reducing equivalents and building blocks while several metabolites exert a signaling function promoting tumor growth and progression. A cancer tissue cannot be simply reduced to a bulk of proliferating cells. Tumors are indeed complex and dynamic structures where single cells can heterogeneously perform various biological activities with different metabolic requirements. Because tumors are composed of different types of cells with metabolic activities affected by different spatial and temporal contexts, it is important to address metabolism taking into account cellular and biological heterogeneity. In this review, we describe this heterogeneity also in metabolic fluxes, thus showing the relative contribution of different metabolic activities to tumor progression according to the cellular context. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Mitochondria in Cancer, edited by Giuseppe Gasparre, Rodrigue Rossignol and Pierre Sonveaux.
Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Emmanuel Mounier 52 box B1.53.09, 1200 Brussels, Belgium; Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Emmanuel Mounier 73 box B1.73.08, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
Pierre
P
Danhier
Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Emmanuel Mounier 52 box B1.53.09, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
Piotr
P
Bański
Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Emmanuel Mounier 52 box B1.53.09, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
Valéry L
VL
Payen
Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Emmanuel Mounier 52 box B1.53.09, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
Debora
D
Grasso
Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Viale Morgagni 50, Florence, Italy.
Luigi
L
Ippolito
Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Emmanuel Mounier 52 box B1.53.09, 1200 Brussels, Belgium.
Pierre
P
Sonveaux
Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Avenue Emmanuel Mounier 52 box B1.53.09, 1200 Brussels, Belgium; Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Molecular Biotechnology Center, University of Torino, Via Nizza 52, 10126 Torino Italy. Electronic address: paolo.porporato@unito.it.
Paolo E
PE
Porporato
D000818:Animals; D016923:Cell Death; D002455:Cell Division; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D006019:Glycolysis; D006801:Humans; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism
Cancer; Heterogeneity; Metabolism; Metastasis; Mitochondria