Glucose Metabolism Intervention-Facilitated Nanomedicine Therapy

Abstract

Ordinarily, cancer cells possess features of abnormally increased nutrient intake and metabolic pathways. The disorder of glucose metabolism is the most important among them. Therefore, starvation therapy targeting glucose metabolism specifically, which results in metabolic disorders, restricted synthesis, and inhibition of tumor growth, has been developed for cancer therapy. However, issues such as inadequate targeting effectiveness and drug tolerance impede their clinical transformation. In recent years, nanomaterial-assisted starvation treatment has made significant progress in addressing these challenges, whether as a monotherapy or in combination with other medications. Herein, representative researches on the construction of nanosystems conducting starvation therapy are introduced. Elaborate designs and interactions between different treatment mechanisms are meticulously mentioned. Not only are traditional treatments based on glucose oxidase involved, but also newly sprung small molecule agents targeting glucose metabolism. The obstacles and potential for advancing these anticancer therapies were also highlighted in this review.

Metal-rich cascade nanosystem for dual-pathway ferroptosis resistance regulation and photothermal effect for efficient tumor combination therapy

“…First, GOx consumes glucose and produces a large amount of H 2 O 2 , which provides the raw material for the Fenton reaction. 34 This reaction process was accompanied by a decrease in the environmental pH value due to gluconic acid production. As illustrated in Fig.…”

Effect of regulatory cell death on the occurrence and development of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

“…In other words, a series of changes cause tumour cells to reregulate adenine nucleoside triphosphate (ATP) production or increase glucose uptake to promote energy production. Under sufficient oxygen, tumour cells promote the rapid energy supply of glycolysis due to the change in the microenvironment, which is called the “Warburg effect” [ 172 , 173 ]. Metabolic reprogramming in the TME was confirmed by analysing the metabolic-related gene prognostic index (MRGPI) in HNSCC.…”

Reallocating Cell Respiration Substrates for Cancer Therapy Using a Metabolism Regulator with an Intermembrane‐Translocatable Accessory

“…The first method mentioned in the glycolysis inhibition strategy can also be recognized as glucose starvation, which has emerged as a promising method to inhibit the metabolism and growth of cancer cells. [ 27–36 ] For example, Seki et al. reported that upon cold exposure, the resulting activated brown adipose tissue can consume glucose, and thus the tumor glucose supply is limited, as a result of which the tumor growth of the mice exposed to cold condition is significantly inhibited.…”

“…[15,26] The first method mentioned in the glycolysis inhibition strategy can also be recognized as glucose starvation, which has emerged as a promising method to inhibit the metabolism and growth of cancer cells. [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] For example, Seki et al reported that upon cold exposure, the resulting activated brown adipose tissue can consume glucose, and thus the tumor glucose supply is limited, as a result of which the tumor growth of the mice exposed to cold condition is significantly inhibited. [16] Besides, a commonly used glucose scavenger is the glucose oxidase (GOx), which can catalyze glucose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in the presence of oxygen (O 2 ) and has gained wide attention for its remarkable anticancer capability via not only metabolism inhibition (by glucose consumption) but also cell killing (by H 2 O 2 generation).…”