NCKU professor’s research on cancer mechanism published in Cell Metabolism
Tainan, Taiwan, January 19, 2016
A study from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) professor Dr. I-Chen Peng demonstrated an unexpected role of Myc in inducing glutamine synthesis and suggested a molecular connection between DNA demethylation and glutamine metabolism in Myc driven cancers.
According to Dr. Peng, c-Myc is known to promote glutamine usage by upregulating glutaminase (GLS), which converts glutamine to glutamate that is catabolized in the TCA cycle.
Dr. Peng, a professor of life sciences, whose research interests are on targeting lipid and glutamine metabolism to treat obesity and obesity-related diseases, particularly the molecular mechanisms of AMPK, Myc and epigenetic regulation of lipogenesis and glutamine metabolism in adipocytes, hepatocytes and cancer cells.
Her study revealed that in a number of human and murine cells and cancers, Myc induces elevated expression of glutamate-ammonia ligase (GLUL), also termed glutamine synthetase (GS), which catalyzes the de novo synthesis of glutamine from glutamate and ammonia.
Dr. Peng said, this is through upregulation of a Myc transcriptional target thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG), which promotes active demethylation of the GS promoter and its increased expression.
Elevated expression of GS promotes cell survival under glutamine limitation, while silencing of GS decreases cell proliferation and xenograft tumor growth, she added.
Upon GS overexpression, increased glutamine enhances nucleotide synthesis and aminoacid transport.
The study which is published in the journal “Cell Metabolism” in December 2015 offers insight into Myc driven cancers.
Dr. Peng received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at National Taiwan University. She received her Ph.D. in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program from University of California at Riverside, USA, and the post-doctoral training in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at Stony Brook University in New York, USA.
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A study from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) professor Dr. I-Chen Peng demonstrated an unexpected role of Myc in inducing glutamine synthesis and suggested a molecular connection between DNA demethylation and glutamine metabolism in Myc driven cancers.
According to Dr. Peng, c-Myc is known to promote glutamine usage by upregulating glutaminase (GLS), which converts glutamine to glutamate that is catabolized in the TCA cycle.
Dr. Peng, a professor of life sciences, whose research interests are on targeting lipid and glutamine metabolism to treat obesity and obesity-related diseases, particularly the molecular mechanisms of AMPK, Myc and epigenetic regulation of lipogenesis and glutamine metabolism in adipocytes, hepatocytes and cancer cells.
Her study revealed that in a number of human and murine cells and cancers, Myc induces elevated expression of glutamate-ammonia ligase (GLUL), also termed glutamine synthetase (GS), which catalyzes the de novo synthesis of glutamine from glutamate and ammonia.
Dr. Peng said, this is through upregulation of a Myc transcriptional target thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG), which promotes active demethylation of the GS promoter and its increased expression.
Elevated expression of GS promotes cell survival under glutamine limitation, while silencing of GS decreases cell proliferation and xenograft tumor growth, she added.
Upon GS overexpression, increased glutamine enhances nucleotide synthesis and aminoacid transport.
The study which is published in the journal “Cell Metabolism” in December 2015 offers insight into Myc driven cancers.
Dr. Peng received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at National Taiwan University. She received her Ph.D. in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program from University of California at Riverside, USA, and the post-doctoral training in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at Stony Brook University in New York, USA.
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