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The Pentose Phosphate Pathway Dynamics in Cancer and Its Dependency on Intracellular pH
- Source :
- Metabolites, Vol 10, Iss 285, p 285 (2020), Metabolites
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The Pentose Phosphate Pathway (PPP) is one of the key metabolic pathways occurring in living cells to produce energy and maintain cellular homeostasis. Cancer cells have higher cytoplasmic utilization of glucose (glycolysis), even in the presence of oxygen; this is known as the “Warburg Effect”. However, cytoplasmic glucose utilization can also occur in cancer through the PPP. This pathway contributes to cancer cells by operating in many different ways: (i) as a defense mechanism via the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) to prevent apoptosis, (ii) as a provision for the maintenance of energy by intermediate glycolysis, (iii) by increasing genomic material to the cellular pool of nucleic acid bases, (iv) by promoting survival through increasing glycolysis, and so increasing acid production, and (v) by inducing cellular proliferation by the synthesis of nucleic acid, fatty acid, and amino acid. Each step of the PPP can be upregulated in some types of cancer but not in others. An interesting aspect of this metabolic pathway is the shared regulation of the glycolytic and PPP pathways by intracellular pH (pHi). Indeed, as with glycolysis, the optimum activity of the enzymes driving the PPP occurs at an alkaline pHi, which is compatible with the cytoplasmic pH of cancer cells. Here, we outline each step of the PPP and discuss its possible correlation with cancer.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Intracellular pH
lcsh:QR1-502
Cellular homeostasis
Review
Pentose phosphate pathway
Biochemistry
lcsh:Microbiology
03 medical and health sciences
chemistry.chemical_compound
0302 clinical medicine
cancer
Glycolysis
Molecular Biology
pH
Metabolism
Warburg effect
enzyme
Metabolic pathway
030104 developmental biology
chemistry
redox
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
metabolism
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 22181989
- Volume :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Metabolites
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c2bb4088bb1abb7af85616f493aca7e0
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10070285