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Statistical Mechanics in Systems Biology: Villa Orlandi, Anacapri ~ May 29 - June 1, 2012 |
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Eyal Gottlieb The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, UK Metabolomic approaches to discover new targets for cancer treatment The extent to which metabolism plays a role in tumorigenesis cannot be overstated and drugs that selectively target these processes are likely to at least delay, if not halt tumour progression. Our work utilizes analytical chemistry and system biology approaches to study metabolic transformation. We investigated cells deficient in the mitochondrial tumour suppressor fumarate hydratase (FH) and using metabolomics data we applied a computational model, generated to study their unique metabolome. We identified several important metabolic pathways which are specific and crucial for the survival of cancer cells deficient in FH. These include the heme biosynthesis and degradation pathway as well as mechanisms of alleviating tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle carbon stress. These technologies are not only important for understanding the basic biochemistry of cancer cells but they can inform us on future clinical management of cancer and may lead to new therapeutic approaches to target cancer-specific metabolic pathways. |
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