It turned out that cancer cells proliferate with amino acids rather than glucose

ByToni

"Cell" which is the smallest unit constituting a human being uses glucose as the energy source. Although human growth is composed of "cell division" and "cell growth", glucose is also an energy source of these, and it seems that it is also a source of various cell divisions as well as somatic cells It was. However, from the results of the new research, it became clear that cells construct dividing cells based on substances supplied by amino acids, not glucose.

How cancer cells fuel their growth | MIT News
http://news.mit.edu/2016/how-cancer-cells-fuel-their-growth-0307


The human body is composed of about 60 trillion cells, and this cell is reborn day by day. There is a limit on the number of times these cells divide, but cancer cells do not have this limitation and continue to grow indefinitely. Therefore, if there are any cancer cells remaining somewhere in the body, the cancer cells proliferate over time and metastasize to other tissues and organs.

In cell division involving cancer cells, glucose (glucose) which is one kind of sugar has been thought to become its energy source, but research carried out by the biologist of MIT shows that the largest division of cancer cells It turned out that it is carbon and nitrogen supplied by amino acids, not glucose, which is the source of energy. This finding seems to have the possibility of becoming a new clue to develop a new drug that suppresses growth and division of cancer cells.

"If you want to observe the energy metabolism of cancer cells, you need to understand how different the energy actually generated and the energy used are," said MIT's biologist lecturer He is also one of the authors of research papersMatthew Vander HeidenAssociate professor.

ByYale Rosen

In the 1920s cancer cells were known to be produced by different energies than normal cells. This phenomenon was discovered by a German physicianOtto · WarburgFrom the name of Mr.Warburg effectIt is called.

Mr. Whartburg discovered that energy cells used fermentation where cancer cells are inefficient energy production rather than oxygen respiration. And energy born by fermentation was thought to be used by cancer cells to create the basis of new cells and that large amounts of glucose are converted into lactate which is harmful to somatic cells. In addition, research results have been published that not only new cancer cells but also rapidly dividing mammalian body cells are divided by the same principle. "Since mammals eat a variety of foods, it has not yet been clarified how foods are involved in cell division," heiden said.

ByTylana

In this study, Associate Professor Heiden put several cancer cells and normal somatic cells in a culture dish and observed what new cells are born from cell division. In experiments, different nutrients were given to the cells, and changes in the original cells were observed. When weighing the cells before and after cell division, we found that cells given nutrients other than glucose, glutamine, and glutamine increased the volume significantly. However, glucose and glutamine have been found to have little effect on the composition of most of the cells, it seems that there was only 10 to 15% of glucose and 10% of glutamine. In contrast, the carbon and nitrogen supplied by the amino acids contributed to building 20 to 40% of the new cells.

"MIT's research team strictly and quantitatively investigated how glucose, glutamine, and other molecules have on mammalian cell proliferation," said Jared Luther, professor of biology at the University of Utah, We support the experimental results published by MIT. About the experiment result Heiden Associate Professor commented "This is a very surprising result because most cells are composed of proteins."

ByOpen Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine

Although it was revealed that "cancer cells proliferate carbon and nitrogen supplied from amino acids at the time of division into energy sources", it is unclear why human somatic cells consume a large amount of glucose at the time of division is.