Facilitative glucose transporters: Implications for cancer detection, prognosis and treatment

Carly C Barron; Philip J Bilan; Theodoros Tsakiridis; Evangelia Tsiani

doi:10.1016/j.metabol.2015.10.007

Facilitative glucose transporters: Implications for cancer detection, prognosis and treatment

Metabolism. 2016 Feb;65(2):124-39. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2015.10.007. Epub 2015 Nov 13.

Authors

Carly C Barron¹, Philip J Bilan², Theodoros Tsakiridis³, Evangelia Tsiani⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada.
² Program in Cell Biology, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
³ Department of Oncology, and Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada.
⁴ Department of Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada. Electronic address: ltsiani@brocku.ca.

PMID: 26773935
DOI: 10.1016/j.metabol.2015.10.007

Abstract

It is long recognized that cancer cells display increased glucose uptake and metabolism. In a rate-limiting step for glucose metabolism, the glucose transporter (GLUT) proteins facilitate glucose uptake across the plasma membrane. Fourteen members of the GLUT protein family have been identified in humans. This review describes the major characteristics of each member of the GLUT family and highlights evidence of abnormal expression in tumors and cancer cells. The regulation of GLUTs by key proliferation and pro-survival pathways including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt, hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), Ras, c-Myc and p53 pathways is discussed. The clinical utility of GLUT expression in cancer has been recognized and evidence regarding the use of GLUTs as prognostic or predictive biomarkers is presented. GLUTs represent attractive targets for cancer therapy and this review summarizes recent studies in which GLUT1, GLUT3, GLUT5 and others are inhibited to decrease cancer growth.

Keywords: Cancer metabolism; GLUT; Glucose transporter; SLC2; Warburg effect.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative / antagonists & inhibitors
Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative / classification
Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative / physiology*
Humans
Neoplasms / diagnosis*
Neoplasms / therapy
Prognosis

Substances

Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative
Fluorodeoxyglucose F18