Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10048, Taiwan, China.
Department of Diabetes Complications and Metabolism, Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, CA, 91010, USA.
Cancer Commun (Lond). 2018 Jul 11;38(1):47. doi: 10.1186/s40880-018-0317-9.
The role of fatty acid metabolism, including both anabolic and catabolic reactions in cancer has gained increasing attention in recent years. Many studies have shown that aberrant expression of the genes involved in fatty acid synthesis or fatty acid oxidation correlate with malignant phenotypes including metastasis, therapeutic resistance and relapse. Such phenotypes are also strongly associated with the presence of a small percentage of unique cells among the total tumor cell population. This distinct group of cells may have the ability to self-renew and propagate or may be able to develop resistance to cancer therapies independent of genetic alterations. Therefore, these cells are referred to as cancer stem cells/tumor-initiating cells/drug-tolerant persisters, which are often refractory to cancer treatment and difficult to target. Moreover, interconversion between cancer cells and cancer stem cells/tumor-initiating cells/drug-tolerant persisters may occur and makes treatment even more challenging. This review highlights recent findings on the relationship between fatty acid metabolism, cancer stemness and therapeutic resistance and prompts discussion about the potential mechanisms by which fatty acid metabolism regulates the fate of cancer cells and therapeutic resistance.
近年来，脂肪酸代谢（包括合成和分解代谢反应）在癌症中的作用引起了越来越多的关注。许多研究表明，参与脂肪酸合成或脂肪酸氧化的基因异常表达与恶性表型相关，包括转移、治疗抵抗和复发。这些表型还与肿瘤细胞群体中一小部分独特细胞的存在密切相关。这群独特的细胞可能具有自我更新和增殖的能力，或者可能能够独立于遗传改变而对癌症治疗产生耐药性。因此，这些细胞被称为癌症干细胞/肿瘤起始细胞/耐药持久细胞，它们通常对癌症治疗有抗性，难以靶向。此外，癌细胞与癌症干细胞/肿瘤起始细胞/耐药持久细胞之间可能发生相互转化，这使得治疗更加困难。这篇综述强调了脂肪酸代谢、癌症干性和治疗抵抗之间关系的最新发现，并促使讨论脂肪酸代谢调节癌细胞和治疗抵抗命运的潜在机制。
