Search

Elrod and colleagues reveal the role of ATP-citrate lyase in myofibroblast differentiation and cardiac fibrosis.

A study demonstrates that metabolic signalling and inflammatory cues associated with obesity selectively induce expression of PD-1 on tumour-associated macrophages to suppress anti-tumour immunity.

Using cryo-electron microscopy, the structures of mammalian fatty acid synthase reveal how the acyl carrier protein dynamically shuttles intermediates between selected active sites.

Korobkina et al. show that ACLY in brown fat prevents metabolic overload in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, thus ensuring adequate thermogenesis by avoiding cellular stress.

Lundgren et al. show that in response to transient cold exposure, a distinct subpopulation of brown adipocytes carries out a lipogenic response involving production of acylcarnitines, which enables an improved thermogenic response to secondary cold exposure.

Miller et al. show that blocking ACSS2 remodels acetate metabolism in cancer cells, thereby freeing acetate for tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, which bolsters their effector function and promotes antitumor immunity in breast cancer.

Signalling is known to regulate metabolism, and it is becoming clear that this regulation is reciprocal, with signalling pathways being regulated by the availability of nutrient-sensitive modifications, such as acetylation and glycosylation. This tight link between signalling and metabolism allows cells to modulate their activities according to metabolic status.

Murthy et al. demonstrate that cancer-associated fibroblast-derived acetate regulates polyamine homeostasis via an ACSS2–SP1–SAT1 axis in pancreatic cancer cells, thus enabling cell survival and tumour development under acidosis.

Inhibition of the metabolic enzyme ATP-citrate lyase can attenuate atherosclerosis by preventing dyslipidemia and potentially also by reducing macrophage-mediated inflammation. Here, the authors show that specific targeting of ACLY in macrophages results in more stable atherosclerotic plaques.

The mechanisms that enable the deadly spread of cancer are not fully understood. It emerges that tumours can signal to the lung to manipulate lipids and so prime the organ to support tumour cells that subsequently spread there.

Distant metastases from pancreatic cancer patients were previously reported by the authors to be dependent on the glucose-metabolizing enzyme phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGD). Here the authors report a novel metabolic adaptation that that stably activates PGD to reprogram metastatic chromatin.

A genetic mouse model is used to reveal a two-pronged mechanism of fructose-induced de novo lipogenesis in the liver, in which fructose catabolism in hepatocytes provides a signal to promote lipogenesis, whereas fructose metabolism by the gut microbiota provides acetate as a substrate to feed lipogenesis.

Cells regulate gene expression in part through the chemical labelling of histone proteins. Discovery of a label derived from lactate molecules reveals a way in which cells link gene expression to nutrient metabolism.

Overexpression of the enzyme cytidine deaminase allows the incorporation of abnormally modified nucleotides into DNA, leading to cell death. This discovery might point the way to treating some cancers. See Letter p.114

Andrew Feinberg, Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue and colleagues describe the epigenomic reprogramming that occurs during pancreatic cancer progression. They also show that hematogenous metastases co-evolve a dependence on the oxidative branch of the pentose phosphate pathway (oxPPP) and that oxPPP inhibition reverses chromatin reprogramming and blocks tumorigenic potential.

The development of metabolic tracers reveals that malic enzyme is the main contributor of NADPH production in differentiating adipocytes. During hypoxic conditions, the source of NADPH shifts to the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway.

Alterations in the epigenome and metabolism bidirectionally regulate molecular rewiring in cancer cells. This Review discusses how metabolic remodelling can contribute to tumour epigenetic alterations, thereby affecting cancer cell differentiation, proliferation and/or apoptosis as well as therapeutic responses.

Acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) is a key metabolite in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and plays a role in signalling through protein acetylation, and the dysregulation of these pathways is a hallmark of various cancers. In this Review, Guertin and Wellen give an overview of acetyl-CoA metabolism in health and in cancer and discuss emerging therapeutic strategies for targeting metabolic pathways involving acetyl-CoA.

Cancer-associated IDH mutants that produce 2-hydroxyglutarate are shown to prevent the histone demethylation that is required for lineage-specific progenitor cells to differentiate into terminally differentiated cells.

Evidence for a link between cellular senescence and metabolic regulation is provided, through the observation that p53 represses the expression of malic enzymes, thereby regulating NADPH, lipid and glutamine metabolism; in turn, this repression further activates p53, promoting cellular senescence.