Cancer Research Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, 421001, PR China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, China.
Cell Commun Signal. 2024 Mar 6;22(1):163. doi: 10.1186/s12964-024-01540-x.
Asparagine, an important amino acid in mammals, is produced in several organs and is widely used for the production of other nutrients such as glucose, proteins, lipids, and nucleotides. Asparagine has also been reported to play a vital role in the development of cancer cells. Although several types of cancer cells can synthesise asparagine alone, their synthesis levels are insufficient to meet their requirements. These cells must rely on the supply of exogenous asparagine, which is why asparagine is considered a semi-essential amino acid. Therefore, nutritional inhibition by targeting asparagine is often considered as an anti-cancer strategy and has shown success in the treatment of leukaemia. However, asparagine limitation alone does not achieve an ideal therapeutic effect because of stress responses that upregulate asparagine synthase (ASNS) to meet the requirements for asparagine in cancer cells. Various cancer cells initiate different reprogramming processes in response to the deficiency of asparagine. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the asparagine metabolism in cancers. This review primarily discusses the physiological role of asparagine and the current progress in the field of cancer research.
天冬酰胺是哺乳动物中一种重要的氨基酸，它在多个器官中产生，并广泛用于生产葡萄糖、蛋白质、脂质和核苷酸等其他营养物质。天冬酰胺也被报道在癌细胞的发育中起着至关重要的作用。尽管几种类型的癌细胞可以单独合成天冬酰胺，但它们的合成水平不足以满足其需求。这些细胞必须依赖外源性天冬酰胺的供应，这就是为什么天冬酰胺被认为是一种半必需氨基酸。因此，通过靶向天冬酰胺的营养抑制通常被认为是一种抗癌策略，并已在白血病的治疗中取得成功。然而，由于应激反应会上调天冬酰胺合成酶 (ASNS) 以满足癌细胞中天冬酰胺的需求，因此仅限制天冬酰胺并不能达到理想的治疗效果。各种癌细胞会针对天冬酰胺的缺乏启动不同的重编程过程。因此，有必要全面了解癌症中天冬酰胺的代谢。本文主要讨论了天冬酰胺的生理作用以及癌症研究领域的最新进展。
