Feeding frenzy for cancer cells
Menée in vitro et in vivo sur des modèles de cancer du sein, cette étude met en évidence des mécanismes par lesquels l'ammoniac accumulé dans le microenvironnement tumoral constitue une source d'azote pour le métabolisme des cellules cancéreuses
Cancer cells are thought to undergo metabolic rewiring to scavenge waste products and recycle them as building blocks for growth. On page 941 of this issue, Spinelli et al. (1) report that ammonia could be recycled through glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH)–mediated reductive amination of
α-ketoglutarate to produce the amino acid glutamate that, in turn, is converted to other amino acids such as aspartate and proline for biomass production (see the figure). This intriguing evidence of nitrogen fixation by breast cancer cells is reminiscent of nitrogen fixation in bacteria, yeast, and plants mediated by biochemical systems that evolved to harness nitrogen from the atmosphere for amino acid biosynthesis and biomass accumulation (2).