ABSTRACT
Different from normal cells, tumor cells display a metabolic profile by facilitate glycolysis pathway to provide adenosine triphosphate (ATP) quickly for cell growth and survival. Therefore, the demand of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), an important coenzyme in glycolysis pathway, increases obviously in tumor cells. It has been reported that tumor cells synthetize NAD through the primary salvage pathway, in which nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) is the rate-limiting enzyme. As such, NAMPT regulates the cellular metabolism directly through controlling NAD synthesis and indirectly via affecting the activity of NAD-dependent enzymes. Meanwhile, NAMPT can ensure the viability of tumor cells by up-regulating the level of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). Recently, NAMPT has been proposed as a new potential target for cancer treatment, and a number of studies have implicated that the NAMPT inhibitor has obvious anti-cancer effects. This review summarizes the alternation of metabolism in tumor cells, highlights the crucial role of NAMPT in cellular metabolism, and discusses the anticancer effect and the potential clinical application of NAMPT inhibitors in cancer treatment.