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Cancer metabolism

Beyond Warburg: LDHA activates RAC for tumour growth

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The physiological role of aerobic glycolysis (also known as the Warburg effect), which is observed in many tumours, is still not fully understood. The finding that lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) activates RAC1 in breast cancer sheds new light on this persistently enigmatic aspect of cancer metabolism.

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Fig. 1: The non-canonical function of LDHA induces RAC1 activation by blocking RACGAP access and promoting malignant growth and metastasis of breast cancers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. P. Smith for editing. N.O. is supported in part by KAKENHI (20H03165) and JST-CREST (JPMJCR20H6). This work is supported by NIH grant R01CA255331 and AMED grant Project for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Evolution (P-CREATE; 22ama221112).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka, Japan

    Natsuski Osaka & Atsuo T. Sasaki

  2. Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Atsuo T. Sasaki

  3. Department of Cancer Biology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Atsuo T. Sasaki

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Brain Tumor Center at UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Atsuo T. Sasaki

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  1. Natsuski Osaka
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  2. Atsuo T. Sasaki
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Correspondence to Atsuo T. Sasaki.

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Osaka, N., Sasaki, A.T. Beyond Warburg: LDHA activates RAC for tumour growth. Nat Metab 4, 1623–1625 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00709-3

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