Glutamine metabolism in cancer therapy

Abstract

The amino acid glutamine plays a key role in the metabolism of highly proliferating cells. During malignant transformation, cancer cells modify the consumption and processing of glutamine to sustain cell growth and proliferation. In some cases, these cancer cells become addicted to glutamine. Thus, targeting the metabolism of glutamine has been developed during last years as a potential strategy against cancer. In this review, we summarized the last advances in our knowledge about the role of glutamine metabolism in cancer therapy.