Glutamine has a small molecular weight, but it has a lot of function

Nov. 30, 2020 // ---Glutamine is glutamate, L-glutamine is a coded amino acid in protein synthesis, mammalian non-essential amino acids, which can be converted from glucose in the body.
is not an essential amino acid, it can be synthesized by glutamate, proline, isoestine in the human body.
under the stress state of disease, poor nutritional status or high-intensity exercise, the body's demand for glutamine increases, so that its synthesis can not meet the needs.
glutamine has many important physiological effects.
e.g. it is the main metabolic substrate of monocyte macrophages, which provides energy for cell metabolism through glutamine enzymes, is a prelude to the synthesis of amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, can effectively prevent intestinal mucosa atrophy, improve intestinal immune function, is a prelude substance of glutathione synthesis, and so on.
recent years, scientists have also found that some cancers are addicted to glutamine, which also prevents muscle injuries and aging.
based on this, the editor combed through glutamine-related research in recent years to reach out to readers.
1.Nature: Glutamine Prevents Muscle Injury and Aging Doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2857-9 A team led by Professor Massimiliano Mazzone (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology) has teamed up with Dr. Emanuele Berardi and Dr. Min Shang to reveal a new metabolic dialogue between inflammatory cells and muscle stem cells.
researchers have shown that strengthening this metabolic crosstalk with GLUD1 inhibitors promotes the release of glutamine and improves muscle regeneration and body function in experimental models of muscle degeneration such as trauma, local isoemia and aging.
in addition to its transformational potential, this work has provided important advances in a number of research areas, including muscle biology, immunobolism and stem cell biology.
skeletal muscle helps our body move, it is also a large reserve of amino acids stored in protein form, which affects the energy and protein metabolism of the entire body.
amino acid glutamine is considered essential for muscle metabolism because of its richness.
, however, its exact role after trauma or during chronic muscle delincation disorders is largely ignored.
masimiliano Mazzone's team observed that normal levels of glutamine in muscles decreased due to dead muscle tissue during damage or aging.
the metabolic dialogue between inflammatory cells that arrive after injury and lying muscle stem cells.
this cell crosstalk re-establishes the original level of glutamine in the muscles and promotes muscle fiber regeneration in the process.
2.Nature Cancer: Breakthrough! New method to turn colon cancer cells into normal cells! doi:10.1038/s43018-020-0035-5 According to scientists at the University of California, Irvine, using an improved natural substance and current methods can improve the treatment of colon cancer.
findings stem from their study of the role of an amino acid in tumor development and potential ways to reverse the process.
their paper was published in the journal Nature Cancer.
cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States.
80% of colon cancer is due to genetic mutations in E. coli (APC), a protein adenoma pneumosis.
that while most people with this mutation develop to be mince, some of them can become cancerous, a phenomenon that is not fully understood.
team decided to investigate non-genetic factors that could lead to the disease, focusing on the role of the amino acid glutamine.
cells need to consume a lot of glutamine to proliferate, " said Kong Mei, an associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of California, California.
, we found that depriving them of glutamine did not kill all tumor cells.
some tumor cells are able to adapt, and in fact, when their glutamine supply is low, they become a more aggressive cancer.
researchers found that after glutamine starvation, the decline in cell metabolite-ketone diacic acid levels was accompanied by a shift from benign cells to cancer cells.
findings prompted them to further study the role of metabolites.
when they provided modified versions of ketone diac acid for animal models with APC mutations, the results were significant.
only 23 percent of mice that received the modified metabolite developed rectal bleeding, a sign of intestinal tumors, while 90 percent of mice that did not receive the metabolite developed rectal bleeding.
can also inhibit tumor growth and prevent disease-related symptoms such as weight loss.
3.Cell Metabol: New Discoveries! Glutamine may reduce inflammation of the body associated with obesity Doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2019.11.019 Researchers from the Caroline Institute of Sweden and others have found in a study published in the international journal Cell Metabolism. Glutamine may help obese people reduce inflammation of the body's adipose tissue and reduce body fat levels, the researchers said, revealing how glutamine levels alter gene expression in multiple types of cells, and later researchers need to do more research to clarify whether glutamine supplements could be recommended as a new treatment for obesity.
glutamine is an amino acid with a variety of key functions, such as providing energy to the body and maintaining good intestinal health, as well as anti-inflammatory effects; in this study, researchers revealed differences in metabolic processes in these adipose tissues by collecting adipose tissue from the abdomens of 52 obese and 29 non-obese women. When comparing the two groups of subjects, the researchers found that glutamine was the amino acid with the largest difference between the two groups, with lower average levels of glutamine in the body's adipose tissue compared to normal-weight populations, while lower levels of glutamine were directly associated with larger fat cell sizes and higher body fat percentages, independent of BMI.
4.Science: Glutamine Blocking Drug Enhances Anti-Tumor Response, Expected to Be Used in CAR-T Cell Therapy doi:1 0.1126/science.aav2588 In a new study, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States found that they developed a compound that blocks glutamine metabolism that slows tumor growth, alters tumor microenvironments, and promotes the production of persistent highly active anti-tumor T cells.
results were published online November 7, 2019 in the journal Science under the title "Glutamine blockadees divergent metabolic programs to overcome tumor immune."
the chemical structure of the glutamine antagonist DON and its prebiotic drug JHU-083, pictured is Translational Oncology, 2019, doi:10.1016/j.tranon.2019.05.013.
As a "prodrug" for the glutamine antagonist DON, a compound called JHU083 (also known as JHU-083) produces its active form (DON) in the tumor after an enzymatic reaction in the body. In theory, given the key role glutamine plays in the metabolism needed to promote the crazy growth of tumors, the compound could be used to treat multiple cancer types, said Dr. Jonathan Powell, co-author of the
paper and associate director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Institute at The Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University.
the researchers found that in many different mouse cancer models, the use of JHU083 therapy significantly reduced tumor growth and improved survival by disrupting tumor cell metabolism and its effects on the tumor micro-environment.
in many mice, treatment with JHU083 alone can lead to a lasting cure.
this cure is due to the natural anti-tumor immune response activated by this metabolic therapy.
When new tumors were re-injected into these cancer-no-cancer mice, they found that almost all mice had immune rejection of new tumors, suggesting that JHU083's treatment produced a powerful immune memory that could identify and attack new cancers.
also treated these mice with JHU083 and anti-PD-1 immuno-checkpoint inhibitors, a class of immunotherapy drugs that relieve cancer cells from suppressing T-cells.
, we thought we needed to use both drugs in turn to avoid any potential effects of metabolic therapy on immunotherapy," said Powell.
, it's worth noting that this combined treatment works best when we give them at the same time.
" compared to using only anti-PD-1 immuno checkpoint inhibitors, and the use of both drugs can enhance their anti-tumor effect.
5.Cell: Inhibiting glutamine metabolism improves the efficacy of CAR-T cell immunotherapy doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.10.001 Professor of Immunobiology at Vanderburg University in the United States, Dr. Jeffrey Rathmell and his colleagues have previously shown that cell fuel glucose plays an important role in promoting inflammation and removing pathogens from T-cell activity and function.
in a new study, the Rathmell team turned their attention to another major fuel: glutamine.
they confirmed that glutamine activates a metabolic signaling pathline that promotes the functioning of some T cells and inhibits the functioning of other T cells.
results were published online November 1, 2018 in the journal Cell, under the title "Regulation Distinct of Th17 and Th1 Cell Source by Glutaminase-Dependent Metabolism."
the researchers had hoped that inhibiting glutamine metabolism would prevent the activity and function of T cells in the same way as blocking glucose metabolism.
they used a drug to suppress glutaminease in the first step of glutamine metabolism.
also studied mice in which the glutamine enzyme-coded gene was targeted for rejection.
they were surprised to find that in these mice, certain T-cells ---terr. those that mediate antiviral and anti-cancer reactions--- performed better in cases where glutamine enzyme activity was lacking.
other T-cells involved in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases performed worse.
picture from Cell, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.10.001.
the findings are consistent with previous studies of glutamine metabolism in cancer cells, said Rathmell, a researcher at the University of The United States.
, "This glutamine-inhibiting compound is effective in one tumor and not in others," said Rathmell, a spokesman for the Group.
the results of this study are the same for T-cells: some T-cells need this path, and some T-cells don't.
if we block this path, the T cells that trigger the autoimmune response do not perform well, but the cancer-fighting T cells perform better, " he said.
"6.Nat Med Heavy! Accurately target amino acid metabolism, so that cancer cells are too hungry to take care of themselves! Doi:10.1038/nm.4464 Researchers from Vanderwal University Medical Center (VUMC) have shown for the first time that a small molecular inhibitor that inhibits glutamine intake can starv and stop tumor cells from growing.
breakthrough findings, published recently in Nature Medicine, lay the groundwork for the development of disruptive therapies that target the metabolism of cancer cells.
glutamine is essential amino acids for a wide range of cell functions, including biosynthetics, cell signaling and protection from oxidative stress.
because cancer cells divide faster than normal cells, they need more glutamine.
opal called ASCT2 is the main transporter that transports glutamine into cancer cells.
elevated ASCT2 levels were associated with poor prognosmation for a variety of cancers.
that silence cancer cells can have significant anti-cancer effects.
VUMC's research team went one step further: they developed the first powerful small molecule inhibitor for glutamine transporters: V-9302.
expression of ASCT2 by inhibiting tumor cells growing in introphy and mouse models by V-9302 can significantly slow the growth and proliferation of cancer cells, increase oxidative stress damage and cancer cell death.
7.EMBO J: Are tumor cells glutamine addicts? doi:10.15252/embj.201796662 Most cancers require a lot of glutamine for rapid growth.
numerous studies have shown that they cannot survive without the phenomenon of glutamine addiction.
this raises the cancer-fighting idea that preventing glutamine intake may be a potential cancer treatment strategy.
in Berlin and Wuerzburg, Germany, showed that although glutamine deficiency inhibits one