Mitochondria as biosynthetic factories for cancer proliferation

Table 1 Overview of mitochondrial biosynthetic enzymes important in cancer

	Cancer type (according to primary site)
	Blood, bone, or lymph	Brain	Breast	Colon	Kidney	Liver	Lung	Stomach	Ovarian	Pancreas	Prostate	Skin
TCA cycle, anaplerosis, and AcCoA metabolism
Pyruvate carboxylase		•	•	•	•	•	•			•		•
Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex	•	•	•	•	•		•			•		•
Isocitrate dehydrogenase (activity or mutation)	•	•	•	•	•	•	•			•		•
Succinate dehydrogenase (mutation)					•
Fumarate hydratase (mutation)					•
Glutaminase and/or glutamate dehydrogenase	•	•	•	•	•	•	•			•		•
Glutamine synthetase		•	•			•
Amino acid metabolism
Pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase	•	•	•	•	•		•		•	•	•	•
Proline oxidase	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Aspartate transaminase			•			•				•
Alanine transaminase				•		•	•	•		•		•
Nucleotide biosynthesis
Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase	•	•	•	•	•		•				•	•
Methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase	•	•	•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•

Cancers in which three or more mitochondrial enzymes have been studied and found to be differentially regulated (or mutated, as indicated) in cancers vs. control groups are included. Dysregulation of each enzyme was demonstrated in clinical tumors samples, animal models, or cell lines at the levels of genes, mRNA, protein, metabolites, and/or flux.

ISSN: 2049-3002