Target identification of endogenous metabolites and its applications in precision medicine and targeted cancer therapy / 医学研究生学报

ABSTRACT

In the past decades, the targeted therapeutic strategies of anti-cancer drugs based on metabolic regulation has been progressing. The study found that the regulation of over-activated metabolic pathways and the subsequent changes brought to metabolic homeostasis can effectively inhibit tumor growth and metastasis. However, the mechanistic link between cancer metabolism and cell fates has remained unclear. As the advancements of biological mass spectrometry and functional omics, researchers have discovered that endogenous metabolites can interact with multiple proteins as functional ligands, and thus affect the survival and proliferation of cancer cells. Nevertheless, the the direct targets and regulatory mechanisms of most functional metabolites in tumors are still unknown. The missing recognition of them has impeded further exploration of the development of precise targeted drug design based metabolic the phenomenon of tumor metabolic reprogramming. Therefore, the capability of elucidating the direct targets of endogenous metabolites in vivo not only helps to develop drugs based on the leading compounds targeting tumor metabolic, but also provides new ideas for personalized medicines of tumor patients. This review thus focuses on the characteristics of cancer metabolism and how endogenous metabolites affects tumor survival, and introduces current target identification approaches applicable to endogenous compounds, in hope to provide thoughts for developing precise treatment strategies based on cancer metabolism.