One of the most important threats to global human health is the increasing incidences of metabolic pathologies (including obesity, type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), which is paralleled by increasing consumptions of hypercaloric diets enriched in simple sugars. The challenge is to identify the metabolic pathways affected by the excessive consumption of these dietary components when they are consumed in excess, to unravel the molecular mechanisms leading to metabolic pathologies and identify novel therapeutic targets to manage them. Mechanistic (mammalian) target of rapamycin (mTOR) has emerged as one of the key molecular nodes that integrate extracellular signals, such as energy status and nutrient availability, to trigger cell responses that could lead to the above-mentioned diseases through the regulation of lipid and glucose metabolism. By activating mTOR signalling, excessive consumption of simple sugars (such as fructose and glucose), could modulate hepatic gluconeogenesis, lipogenesis and fatty acid uptake and catabolism and thus lipid deposition in the liver. In the present review we will discuss some of the most recent studies showing the central role of mTOR in the metabolic effects of excessive simple sugar consumption.
Keywords: fructose; gluconeogenesis; glucose; lipid metabolism; liver; mTOR.