27. tumour metabolism Flashcards
what are the hallmarks of cancer?
- self sufficient in growth signals
- insensitivity to anti-growth signals
- tissue invasion and metastasis
- limitless replication potential
- sustained angiogenesis
- evade apoptosis
what four hallmarks were added in 2011?
- avoiding immune destruction
- genome instability and mutation
- tumour promoting inflammation
- deregulation of cellular energetics
what is an important driver of cancer?
altered cellular metabolism
metabolic phenotype can promote carcinogenic, what can this also be a consequence of?
rapid growth and/or hypoxia
what can be exploited therapeutically in terms of metabolism?
metabolic dependence of cancer cell
what can be used to facilitate discovery of new cancer biomarkers and drug targets?
metabolic profiling
what did Otto Warburg’s observe?
observed that cancer cells exhibit glycolysis to lactate (fermentation) and reduce mitochondrial respiration even in the presence of sufficient oxygen
what was Otto Warburg sure to be true?
that cancer cells arose from some defects in respiration - this is only true in some circumstances
name 5 common metabolic phenotypes associated with cancer cells
- increased glycolysis and lactate production
- increase in glutamine uptake and metabolism
- increase acid production and export
- increase lipid synthesis
- increase nc synthesis and folate dependency
common metabolic phenotypes associated with cancer cells are hallmarks of rapidly dividing cells. what are they the consequence of?
the fact that tumour cells are dividing rapidly and therefore hypermetabolic
describe PET imaging
> radiolabelled glucose analogue, fluoro-deoxyglucose
taken up by fast metabolisng cells
P by hexokinase and retained by tissue with high metabolic activity
what does PET imaging allow?
detection of distal metastasis i.e. surgery will not be curative
what can PET Imaging be used to monitor?
monitor therapy - impairing tumour cells will impair their metabolism
name a chemotherapy that targets highly metaboling cells?
anti-metabolites, these are targeted at inhibiting nucleotide and DNA synthesis
e.g. 5-fluorouracil
when incorporated this causes chain termination, blocks replication and lead to cell death
what are some hormone dependent cancers treated with?
anti-oestrogen and anti-androgens
glycolysis to lactate is energy inefficient compared to what? but what does it allow?
mitochondrial oxidation of pyruvate
>but it does allow glycolysis to occur more rapidly
what can be used for anabolism in rapidly dividing cells? (give 2 examples)
glycolytic intermediates
e.g. intermediates of glycolysis can form amino acids
>glucose-6-phosphate can enter oxidative pentose phosphate pathway to make NADPH
name one major drive form metabolic reprogramming cancer cells?
> cells need to tolerate lack of oxygen (hypoxia) and switch to glycolysis
what do cancer cells need to do in order to survive, promote invasion and metastasise?
export acid
>this gives them survival advantage over other cells - they can adapt and survive in these conditions as they are genomically unstable
>low pH degrades some ECM
in terms of cells cycle check points, what does having high glycolytic rate mean?
high production of some metabolic intermediates will allow for the cell cycle check points to be cleared - this promotes growth and survival
how do this metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells come about?
they are driven by the action of oncogenes or the loss of tumour suppressers
name a target gene of p53, and what is it?
TIGAR
>a metabolic enzyme that catalyses conversion of fructose-2-6-bisphosphate to fructose-6-phosphate
what does frustose-6-phosphate do?
this affects phosphofructokinase by allosteric interactions decreasing its activity
what does fructose-2-6-bisphosphate do?
this is an activator of phosphofructokinase
>TIGAR reduces its levels and so phosphofructokinase activity is decreased
what affect does p53 have on the glycolytic rate?
> it makes TIGAR
this increases fructose-6-phosphate levels
this allosterically reduces phosphofructokinase activity
glycolic rate reduced
what does p53 supresses and promote?
supresses glycolysis and promotes respiration