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Rethinking glutamine addiction

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Tumours reprogram their metabolism to maximize macromolecule biosynthesis for growth. However, which of the common tumour-associated metabolic activities are critical for proliferation remains unclear. Glutamate-derived glutamine is now shown to satisfy the glutamine needs of glioblastoma, indicating that glutamine anaplerosis is dispensable for growth.

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Figure 1: Glioblastoma proliferation under glutamine deprivation depends on glutamate-derived glutamine synthesis through glutamine synthetase.
Figure 2: Glutamine synthetase activity within the tumour microenvironment fulfils glioblastoma glutamine requirements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abigail S. Krall and Heather R. Christofk are at UCLA, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, 34-115 Center for Health Sciences, 650 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA,

    Abigail S. Krall & Heather R. Christofk

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  1. Abigail S. Krall
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  2. Heather R. Christofk
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Correspondence to Heather R. Christofk.

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Krall, A., Christofk, H. Rethinking glutamine addiction. Nat Cell Biol 17, 1515–1517 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb3278

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