Therapeutic Synthesis

Current research in cancer has demonstrated that normal cells and cancer cells use glucose differently and have altered metabolism. Normal cells will utilize glucose and glycolysis (the break down of glucose) to generate ATP, which is the energy unit of the cell. ATP is then used in several reactions to keep the cell healthy and living. However, tumor cells have glycolysis rates that are up to 200 times higher than normal cells, can survive with less oxygen and produce large amounts of lactate in the process. The current most appealing hypothesis is that proliferating tumor cells use elevated glycolysis not only to generate ATP use precursors in glycolysis to make nucleotides for DNA/RNA, lipids for cell membranes and to build proteins. Therefore,
increased glycolysis is essential to generate the building blocks to make more tumor cells. My work has been some the first to establish that adult and pediactric gliomas undergo metabolic reprogramming through increased glucose consumption, altered mitochondiral function and increased production of reactive oxygen species that have both pro and anti tumor growth properties.