Metabolic reprogramming: Overcoming the challenges of the tumor microenvironment

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is regarded as a difficult environment due to nutrient deprivation, hypoxia, and acidosis; therefore, normal cell metabolism is severely restricted. In order for cancer cells to survive and grow in this type of environment, they must change their metabolic processes by dynamically adapting the pathways for the uptake and utilization of different nutrients. The review will present how changes in glycolysis (Warburg effect), oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation, and glutaminolysis enable tumor cells to respond to the metabolic stress of the TME. In addition, the metabolic reprogramming of cancer-associated fibroblasts and immune cells contributes to an immunosuppressive/and protumorigenic environment. The understanding of the adaptive processes will provide new therapies to reverse metabolic vulnerabilities, restore anti-tumor immunity, and disrupt the crosstalk between tumors and stroma, thus improving treatment outcomes. In this review, we have tried to address these issues.

کلیدواژه ها:

Warburg effect ، Oxidative phosphorylation ، Fatty acid oxidation ، Glutaminolysis ، Tumor-stroma crosstalk