Exclusion of a pair of glucose transport proteins is a useful therapeutic approach for lung cancer, proposed by a new study in mice and human cells. Cancer cells use too much glucose to fuel their rapid growth and spread, which has led scientists to consider cutting off supply as a way to treat cancer.
Proteins, glucose transporters, transport it to the cells, making them an attractive target for treatments for starvation of cancer cells. Researchers in genetically modified lung cancer mice lacking the glucose transport protein {Glut1} or an alternative transporter {Glut3., Found that tumors grew just as rapidly in mice lacking Glut1 or Glut1. However, when mice were born with {genetic π lungs that did not have Glut1 and Glut3, they found that the animals grew smaller tumors and survived longer. Using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging technology and radiolabeled sugar, the tumors used less glucose and the cancer cells also grew more slowly.
Deleting Glut1 and Glut3 in four different human lung cancer cell lines, the cells grew more slowly revealing that Glut1 and Glut3 are needed together to fuel the development of lung cancer. The team also found that most of the biomass derived from sugar in mouse lung tumor cells accumulates in cell compartments and Glut1 is essential for this fuel storage.
While more studies are needed on these fuel storage compartments in tumors, the new approach to treating lung cancer focuses on cancer cell starvation.
SOURCE: CancerEPFLLung CancerMetabolism Lausanne Switzerland {period. eLife} JUNE 2020.
