Glutamine Signaling in Cancer Biology
Summary
Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid that becomes conditionally essential in many malignancies, where it fulfils both biosynthetic and signalling functions. Beyond serving as a carbon and nitrogen donor for nucleotide, amino-sugar and lipid synthesis, glutamine feeds the tricarboxylic acid cycle to maintain bioenergetics and redox balance. Cancer cells frequently upregulate glutamine transporters such as SLC1A5 and enhance glutaminase activity to convert glutamine into glutamate and ammonia, thereby supporting anabolic growth. In parallel, glutamine modulates key signalling cascades—most notably mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and Myc-driven transcriptional programmes—to regulate protein synthesis, autophagy and cell-cycle progression. Dysregulated glutamine supply and utilisation underpin tumour proliferation, metastatic potential and therapeutic resistance, rendering components of the glutamine axis attractive targets for anticancer intervention.
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Glutamine Signaling in Cancer Biology publication trend
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Technical terms
Glutaminase (GLS): mitochondrial enzyme catalysing the hydrolysis of glutamine to glutamate and ammonia.
mTORC1: mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1, a protein kinase complex that senses amino acid levels to regulate cell growth and autophagy.
Glutamine addiction: phenomenon whereby cancer cells develop a strict dependency on exogenous glutamine for proliferation and survival.
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