Aspartate is an endogenous metabolic limitation for tumour growth.

ABSTRACT: Defining the metabolic limitations of tumour growth will help to develop cancer therapies¹. Cancer cells proliferate slower in tumours than in standard culture conditions, indicating that a metabolic limitation may restrict cell proliferation in vivo. Aspartate synthesis can limit cancer cell proliferation when respiration is impaired^2-4; however, whether acquiring aspartate is endogenously limiting for tumour growth is unknown. We confirm that aspartate has poor cell permeability, which prevents environmental acquisition, whereas the related amino acid asparagine is available to cells in tumours, but cancer cells lack asparaginase activity to convert asparagine to aspartate. Heterologous expression of guinea pig asparaginase 1 (gpASNase1), an enzyme that produces asp

SUBMITTER: Sullivan LB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6051729 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature