Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and essential players in pathways such as the citric acid and urea cycle, purine and pyrimidine biosynthesis, and redox cell signaling. Therefore, it is unsurprising that these molecules have a significant role in cancer metabolism and its metabolic plasticity. As one of the most prevalent malign diseases, colorectal cancer needs biomarkers for its early detection, prognostic, and prediction of response to therapy. However, the available biomarkers for this disease must be more powerful and present several drawbacks, such as high costs and complex laboratory procedures. Metabolomics has gathered substantial attention in the past two decades as a screening platform to study new metabolites, partly due to the development of techniques, such as mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography, which have become standard practice in diagnostic procedures for other diseases. Extensive metabolomic studies have been performed in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in the past years, and several exciting results concerning amino acid metabolism have been found. This review aims to gather and present findings concerning alterations in the amino acid plasma pool of colorectal cancer patients.
氨基酸是蛋白质的基本组成单元，并在柠檬酸循环、尿素循环、嘌呤与嘧啶生物合成以及氧化还原细胞信号传导等关键代谢途径中发挥重要作用。因此，这些分子在癌症代谢及其代谢可塑性中具有显著影响并不令人意外。作为最常见的恶性肿瘤之一，结直肠癌亟需用于早期检测、预后评估及治疗反应预测的生物标志物。然而，目前该疾病可用的生物标志物效力有限，且存在成本高昂、实验室操作复杂等缺陷。过去二十年间，代谢组学作为研究新代谢物的筛查平台受到广泛关注，部分得益于质谱和液相色谱等技术在其他疾病诊断流程中的标准化应用。近年来针对结直肠癌患者开展了大量代谢组学研究，并在氨基酸代谢领域取得了多项重要发现。本综述旨在系统梳理并呈现结直肠癌患者血浆氨基酸库变化的相关研究成果。
Amino Acid Profiles in the Biological Fluids and Tumor Tissue of CRC Patients
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家