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KIDNEY CANCER

Sweet success for ccRCC isotope tracing

Nature Reviews Nephrology volume 14, page 658 (2018)Cite this article

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Human clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) tumours display extensive metabolic alterations, mainly driven by the pseudo-hypoxic state associated with loss of the VHL (von Hippel–Lindau) tumour suppressor gene — the principal genetic cause of ccRCC. Although mechanistic and metabolomic studies had already suggested that ccRCC cells produce energy mainly from aerobic glycolysis, also termed the Warburg effect, isotope tracing studies recently published in Cell Press represent the first convincing in vivo evidence of this effect in human tumours.

Courtney et al. show that glycolysis is increased and glucose oxidation is suppressed, a phenotype consistent with the Warburg effect, in ccRCC tumours compared with matched adjacent healthy kidney tissue. The researchers administered 13C-glucose (in which all six carbon atoms were substituted with 13C) to five patients with ccRCC who were undergoing nephrectomy or partial nephrectomy (this infusion increased the patients’ plasma glucose levels by 30–50%). The presence of this isotope in metabolites was traced by proton-decoupled 13C-NMR, with values normalized to the patients’ steady-state plasma 13C-glucose levels.

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Original article

  • Courtney, K. D. et al. Isotope tracing of human clear cell renal cell carcinomas demonstrates suppressed glucose oxidation in vivo. Cell Metab. 28, 1–8 (2018)

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  1. Nature Reviews Nephrology http://www.nature.com/nrneph

    Caroline Barranco

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  1. Caroline Barranco
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Correspondence to Caroline Barranco.

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Barranco, C. Sweet success for ccRCC isotope tracing. Nat Rev Nephrol 14, 658 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-018-0061-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-018-0061-z

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