Cancer Metabolism: From Molecules to Medicine
Harvard Medical School
This Harvard Medical School seminar explores cancer metabolism, examining how cancer cells differ from normal cells in their fuel usage and how this knowledge can lead to new therapies.
Key highlights include:
- Understanding the role of cellular fuels in cancer biology.
- How tumor cells integrate growth signals and nutrient metabolism.
- The metabolic communication between tumor cells and their environment.
- Exploring potential metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer cells.
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- 1The Warburg effect remains central to understanding tumor metabolism, but modern research reveals far more complex metabolic rewiring
- 2Oncogenes like MYC and RAS directly reprogram metabolic pathways to fuel tumor growth and suppress immune responses
- 3Glutamine, lipids, and one-carbon metabolism offer promising drug targets beyond traditional glycolysis inhibition
- 4Combining metabolic inhibitors with immunotherapy shows synergistic effects in preclinical and early clinical trials
- 5Metabolic profiling through FDG-PET and emerging metabolomics tools enables personalized treatment selection
Walk through
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Cancer Metabolism: From Molecules to Medicine — Introduction to the field and historical context of metabolic research in oncology.
Aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells: why tumors prefer fermentation even in the presence of oxygen. Energy yield comparison and biosynthetic advantages.
How MYC, RAS, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling cascades rewire cellular metabolism to support proliferation.
The critical role of glutaminolysis in cancer cells. GLS1/GLS2 enzymes, anaplerotic reactions, and therapeutic targeting with CB-839.
De novo fatty acid synthesis via FASN and ACC. Cholesterol metabolism and mevalonate pathway as drug targets.
Folate cycle, methionine cycle, and their connections to nucleotide synthesis, epigenetics, and redox balance in cancer.
