Serine-glycine-one-carbon metabolism: vulnerabilities in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma

Erhu Zhao; Jianbing Hou; Hongjuan Cui

doi:10.1038/s41389-020-0200-9

Serine-glycine-one-carbon metabolism: vulnerabilities in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma

Oncogenesis. 2020 Feb 7;9(2):14. doi: 10.1038/s41389-020-0200-9.

Authors

Erhu Zhao^#^{1

2

3

4}, Jianbing Hou^#^{1

2

3

4}, Hongjuan Cui^{5

6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.
² Cancer Center, Medical Research Institute, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.
³ Engineering Research Center for Cancer Biomedical and Translational Medicine, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China.
⁴ Chongqing Engineering and Technology Research Center for Silk Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine, 400715, Chongqing, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, College of Biotechnology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China. hcui@swu.edu.cn.
⁶ Cancer Center, Medical Research Institute, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China. hcui@swu.edu.cn.
⁷ Engineering Research Center for Cancer Biomedical and Translational Medicine, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China. hcui@swu.edu.cn.
⁸ Chongqing Engineering and Technology Research Center for Silk Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine, 400715, Chongqing, China. hcui@swu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

In a recent study published in Cancer Research, Xia and colleagues reported that, in cancer, constituents in serine-glycine-one-carbon (SGOC) metabolism exhibit enhanced transcriptional activation and are increasingly utilised, which results in more glucose-derived carbon to serine-glycine biosynthesis. The current work identifies an MYCN-dependent metabolic vulnerability and shows a variety of associations between metabolic reprogramming and enhanced sensitivity to metabolic stress, which may lead the way to unlocking new anticancer therapies. Here, we summarised new insights into the role of SGOC metabolism in the progression of neuroblastoma (NB) with highly activated SGOC metabolism.

Publication types

Review