The Pentose Phosphate Pathway as a Potential Target for Cancer Therapy

During cancer progression, cancer cells are repeatedly exposed to metabolic stress conditions in a resource-limited environment which they must escape. Increasing evidence indicates the importance of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) homeostasis in the survival of cancer cells unde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biomolecules & therapeutics 2018-01, Vol.26 (1), p.29-38
Main Authors: Cho, Eunae Sandra, Cha, Yong Hoon, Kim, Hyun Sil, Kim, Nam Hee, Yook, Jong In
Format: Article
Language:Korean
Subjects:
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase
NADPH
Pentose phosphate pathway
Snail
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Summary:During cancer progression, cancer cells are repeatedly exposed to metabolic stress conditions in a resource-limited environment which they must escape. Increasing evidence indicates the importance of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) homeostasis in the survival of cancer cells under metabolic stress conditions, such as metabolic resource limitation and therapeu-tic intervention. NADPH is essential for scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) mainly derived from oxidative phosphoryla-tion required for ATP generation. Thus, metabolic reprogramming of NADPH homeostasis is an important step in cancer progres-sion as well as in combinational therapeutic approaches. In mammalian, the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and one-carbon metabolism are major sources of NADPH production. In this review, we focus on the importance of glucose flux control towards PPP regulated by oncogenic pathways and the potential therein for metabolic targeting as a cancer therapy. We also summarize the role of Snail (Snai1), an important regulator of the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), in controlling glucose flux towards PPP and thus potentiating cancer cell survival under oxidative and metabolic stress.
ISSN:1976-9148
2005-4483