Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland.
Front Immunol. 2021 Apr 19;12:624324. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.624324. eCollection 2021.
Cancer cells are metabolically vigorous and are superior in the uptake of nutrients and in the release of the tumor microenvironment (TME)-specific metabolites. They create an acidic, hypoxic, and nutrient-depleted TME that makes it difficult for the cytotoxic immune cells to adapt to the metabolically hostile environment. Since a robust metabolism in immune cells is required for optimal anti-tumor effector functions, the challenges caused by the TME result in severe defects in the invasion and destruction of the established tumors. There have been many recent developments in NK and T cell-mediated immunotherapy, such as engineering them to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to enhance tumor-recognition and infiltration. However, to defeat the tumor and overcome the limitations of the TME, it is essential to fortify these novel therapies by improving the metabolism of the immune cells. One potential strategy to enhance the metabolic fitness of immune cells is to upregulate the expression of nutrient transporters, specifically glucose and amino acid transporters. In particular, the amino acid transporters SLC1A5 and SLC7A5 as well as the ancillary subunit SLC3A2, which are required for efficient uptake of glutamine and leucine respectively, could strengthen the metabolic capabilities and effector functions of tumor-directed CAR-NK and T cells. In addition to enabling the influx and efflux of essential amino acids through the plasma membrane and within subcellular compartments such as the lysosome and the mitochondria, accumulating evidence has demonstrated that the amino acid transporters participate in sensing amino acid levels and thereby activate mTORC1, a master metabolic regulator that promotes cell metabolism, and induce the expression of c-Myc, a transcription factor essential for cell growth and proliferation. In this review, we discuss the regulatory pathways of these amino acid transporters and how we can take advantage of these processes to strengthen immunotherapy against cancer.
癌细胞代谢活跃,在摄取营养物质和释放肿瘤微环境(TME)特异性代谢物方面具有优势。它们创造了一个酸性、缺氧和营养缺乏的 TME,使细胞毒性免疫细胞难以适应代谢恶劣的环境。由于免疫细胞中强大的代谢对于最佳抗肿瘤效应功能至关重要,因此 TME 引起的挑战导致对已建立的肿瘤的侵袭和破坏严重缺陷。在 NK 和 T 细胞介导的免疫治疗方面有许多最新进展,例如通过表达嵌合抗原受体(CAR)来对其进行工程改造,以增强对肿瘤的识别和浸润。然而,为了战胜肿瘤并克服 TME 的限制,通过改善免疫细胞的代谢来增强这些新型疗法至关重要。一种增强免疫细胞代谢适应性的潜在策略是上调营养转运蛋白的表达,特别是葡萄糖和氨基酸转运蛋白。特别是,氨基酸转运蛋白 SLC1A5 和 SLC7A5 以及辅助亚基 SLC3A2,分别是有效摄取谷氨酰胺和亮氨酸所必需的,它们可以增强肿瘤定向 CAR-NK 和 T 细胞的代谢能力和效应功能。除了使必需氨基酸通过质膜以及溶酶体和线粒体等亚细胞隔室中的内流和外流之外,越来越多的证据表明,氨基酸转运蛋白参与感应氨基酸水平,从而激活 mTORC1,这是一种促进细胞代谢的主要代谢调节剂,并诱导转录因子 c-Myc 的表达,c-Myc 是细胞生长和增殖所必需的。在这篇综述中,我们讨论了这些氨基酸转运蛋白的调节途径,以及我们如何利用这些过程来加强针对癌症的免疫治疗。
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