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The Warburg Effect in Cancers

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A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Tumor Microenvironment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2024 | Viewed by 2007

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ying Liu

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Guest Editor

Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Interests: cancer metabolism; cytokine signaling; genetics and genomics; cancer therapeutics

Dr. Hui Feng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Departments of Pharmacology and Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Interests: cancer metabolism; endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation; tumor immunology; zebrafish genetics; cancer therapeutics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nearly a century ago, Otto Warburg observed that cancer cells utilize aerobic glycolysis, a phenomenon later referred to as the “Warburg effect”. This altered metabolism is characterized by the elevated rates of glucose uptake and the fermentation of glucose to lactate, even in the presence of oxygen and fully functional mitochondria. The Warburg effect can facilitate tumor cell growth and metastasis through multiple mechanisms. It enables cancer cells to generate ATP and metabolic intermediates to synthesize nucleotide acids, proteins, and lipids, building blocks essential for cell proliferation. In addition, aerobic glycolysis helps maintain redox homeostasis by reducing ROS production in the mitochondria. Interestingly, accumulating evidence indicates that this metabolic alteration can reshape the tumor microenvironment through lactate secretion by tumor cells, leading to cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. Despite these major advances, a comprehensive understanding of how the Warburg Effect impacts cancer is needed to develop diagnostic tools and effective therapies for cancers.

This Special Issue will focus on the Warburg effect and its role in tumorigenesis, highlighting new findings and fresh insights into the metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells, how it may impact the tumor microenvironment, and strategies for therapeutic intervention.

Dr. Ying Liu
Dr. Hui Feng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

aerobic glycolysis
redox balance
tumor microenvironment
tumor initiation
tumor metastasis
cancer diagnosis
patient prognosis

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

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Metabolic Signature of Warburg Effect in Cancer: An Effective and Obligatory Interplay between Nutrient Transporters and Catabolic/Anabolic Pathways to Promote Tumor Growth

by Marilyn Mathew, Nhi T. Nguyen, Yangzom D. Bhutia, Sathish Sivaprakasam and Vadivel Ganapathy

Cancers 2024, 16(3), 504; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16030504 - 24 Jan 2024

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1280 | Correction

Abstract

Aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells, originally observed by Warburg 100 years ago, which involves the production of lactate as the end product of glucose breakdown even in the presence of adequate oxygen, is the foundation for the current interest in the cancer-cell-specific reprograming of metabolic pathways. The renewed interest in cancer cell metabolism has now gone well beyond the original Warburg effect related to glycolysis to other metabolic pathways that include amino acid metabolism, one-carbon metabolism, the pentose phosphate pathway, nucleotide synthesis, antioxidant machinery, etc. Since glucose and amino acids constitute the primary nutrients that fuel the altered metabolic pathways in cancer cells, the transporters that mediate the transfer of these nutrients and their metabolites not only across the plasma membrane but also across the mitochondrial and lysosomal membranes have become an integral component of the expansion of the Warburg effect. In this review, we focus on the interplay between these transporters and metabolic pathways that facilitates metabolic reprogramming, which has become a hallmark of cancer cells. The beneficial outcome of this recent understanding of the unique metabolic signature surrounding the Warburg effect is the identification of novel drug targets for the development of a new generation of therapeutics to treat cancer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Warburg Effect in Cancers)

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