Drug Discovery World

Targeting the metabolic pathways of cancer is a hot topic for drug discovery.

Targeting target cancer metabolism: what is fuelling the resurgence?

By Dr Neil P. Jones

Targeting the metabolic pathways of cancer is a hot topic for drug discovery. The central dogma is that cancers have a higher demand for metabolic inputs to aid proliferation and survival and that this could be an Achilles heal which could be exploited therapeutically. This central metabolic facet of cancer has been known for more than 50 years so what are the recent discoveries that have fuelled the renewed investment in metabolic targets in cancer?

In recent years there has been resurgence in interest in metabolism as a possible area for development of novel anti-cancer agents. This has been fuelled by advances in technology and understanding of cellular metabolism and how targeting this area could be of therapeutic benefit.

The drivers behind these advances have come from academic-led research pushing our understanding of cancer cell metabolism and the interplay between these pathways and other cancer related signalling events linked to changes in oncogene or tumour suppressor gene status/function. In the past few years this spiralling interest has lead to a rapid increase in the number of publications on metabolism, multiple focused cancer metabolism conferences and the renewed interest from the pharmaceutical industry in this area of....