Accumulating evidence indicates that metabolism plays a critical role in the control of various cellular functions, including cell death. Thus, several mechanisms of programmed cell death have been shown to be controlled by metabolic cues. Since programmed cell death represents a fundamental process in various physiological and pathophysiological conditions, including oncogenesis, tumor progression, and resistance to therapy, the metabolic profile of cancer cells is expected to have a significant impact on all these phases of malignant transformation. Further insights into the signal transduction cascades that regulate different cell death pathways in response to metabolic fluctuations will likely result in the identification of potential targets for the development of novel therapeutic interventions. As the deregulation of cell metabolism as well as alterations in cell death pathways are involved in the pathogenesis of multiple human diseases other than cancer, this knowledge has a great translational potential in several areas of medicine.
Keywords: Apoptosis; Autophagy; Cell death; Metabolism; Necroptosis; Necrosis.
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