Department of Cancer Biology, Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Room 450, BRB II/III, 421 Curie Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6160, USA.
Trends Biochem Sci. 2010 Aug;35(8):427-33. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2010.05.003.
Most cancers depend on a high rate of aerobic glycolysis for their continued growth and survival. Paradoxically, some cancer cell lines also display addiction to glutamine despite the fact that glutamine is a nonessential amino acid that can be synthesized from glucose. The high rate of glutamine uptake exhibited by glutamine-dependent cells does not appear to result solely from its role as a nitrogen donor in nucleotide and amino acid biosynthesis. Instead, glutamine plays a required role in the uptake of essential amino acids and in maintaining activation of TOR (target of rapamycin) kinase. Moreover, in many cancer cells, glutamine is the primary mitochondrial substrate and is required for maintenance of mitochondrial membrane potential and integrity and for support of the NADPH production needed for redox control and macromolecular synthesis.
大多数癌症依赖于有氧糖酵解来持续生长和存活。矛盾的是，尽管谷氨酰胺是一种非必需氨基酸，可以由葡萄糖合成，但一些癌细胞系也表现出对谷氨酰胺的依赖。谷氨酰胺依赖性细胞表现出的高谷氨酰胺摄取率似乎不仅仅是由于其作为核苷酸和氨基酸生物合成中氮供体的作用。相反，谷氨酰胺在必需氨基酸的摄取以及维持 TOR（雷帕霉素靶蛋白）激酶的激活中发挥必需作用。此外，在许多癌细胞中，谷氨酰胺是主要的线粒体底物，对于维持线粒体膜电位和完整性以及支持还原控制和大分子合成所需的 NADPH 产生是必需的。
