Oncometabolism

Oncometabolism is the field of study that focuses on the metabolic changes that occur in cells that make up the tumor microenvironment (TME) and accompany oncogenesis and tumor progression toward a neoplastic state. Cells with increased growth and survivability differ from non-tumorigenic cells in terms of metabolism. The Warburg Effect, which describes how cancer cells change their metabolism to become more oncogenic in order to proliferate and eventually invade other tissues in a process known as metastasis. The chemical reactions associated with oncometabolism are triggered by the alteration of oncogenes, which are genes that have the potential to cause cancer. These genes can be functional and active during physiological conditions, producing normal amounts of metabolites. Their upregulation as a result of DNA damage can result in an overabundance of these metabolites, and lead to tumorigenesis. These metabolites are known as oncometabolites, and can act as biomarkers. In the 1920s, Otto Heinrich Warburg discovered an intriguing bioenergetic phenotype shared by most tumor cells: a higher-than-normal reliance on lactic acid fermentation for energy generation. He is known as the "Father of Oncometabolism". Although the roots of this research field trace back to the 1920s, it was only recently recognized Over the last decade, research on cancer progression has focused on the role of shifting metabolic pathways for both the cancer and immune cells, leading to an increase interest in characterizing the metabolic alterations that cells undergo in the TME. In the absence of hypoxic conditions (i.e. physiological levels of oxygen), cancer cells preferentially convert glucose to lactate, according to Otto H. Warburg, who believed that aerobic glycolysis was the key metabolic change in cancer cell malignancy. The "Warburg effect" was later coined to describe this metabolic shift.