Tumor Cell Metabolism: Cancer's Achilles' Heel

Tumor cell metabolism: cancer's Achilles' heel.

The essential hallmarks of cancer are intertwined with an altered cancer cell-intrinsic metabolism, either as a consequence or as a cause. As an example, the resistance of cancer mitochondria against apoptosis-associated permeabilization and the altered contribution of these organelles to metabolism are closely related. Similarly, the constitutive activation of signaling cascades that stimulate...

Antagonizing XIAP-mediated caspase-3 inhibition. Achilles' heel of cancers?

In this issue of Cancer Cell, Schimmer et al. report the identification of small molecule antagonists of XIAP that overcome its inhibition of caspase-3. It was remarkable that the compounds directly induced cell death in tumor cells while having little toxicity on normal cells. This suggests that caspases are already activated in tumor cells, which is different from the caspase activation statu...

Targeting glycolytic aldolase: an Achilles heel in cancer metabolism

Increased nutrient uptake is a major hallmark of cancer and correlates with a poor survival rate. Many of the oncogenic events that drive cancer development influence metabolism by increasing glucose and glutamine uptake while other genetic events and processes also influence metabolism without increased nutrient uptake. Together these events reprogram metabolism away from catabolic metabolism ...

Cancer's new Achilles' heel?

Claims to the discovery of cancers Achilles’ heel are multiple, even clichéd. Analogies to this Greek myth usually refer to the fall of the undefeatable, yet the novelty behind the legend is that a seemingly immortal foe could be toppled by something so innocuous as his heel. This may be the case for cancer and a non-coding mitochondrial RNA that as yet has no known physiological function or me...

Ideology: Criminology's Achilles' Heel?