Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Jun 12:12:1399065.
doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1399065. eCollection 2024.

Unraveling the intricate relationship between lipid metabolism and oncogenic signaling pathways

Fahad Khan #  1 , Deena Elsori #  2 , Meenakshi Verma  3 , Shivam Pandey  4 , Safia Obaidur Rab  5 , Samra Siddiqui  6 , Nadiyah M Alabdallah  7   8 , Mohd Saeed  9 , Pratibha Pandey  10   11
Affiliations
Review

Unraveling the intricate relationship between lipid metabolism and oncogenic signaling pathways

Fahad Khan et al. Front Cell Dev Biol. .

Abstract

Lipids, the primary constituents of the cell membrane, play essential roles in nearly all cellular functions, such as cell-cell recognition, signaling transduction, and energy provision. Lipid metabolism is necessary for the maintenance of life since it regulates the balance between the processes of synthesis and breakdown. Increasing evidence suggests that cancer cells exhibit abnormal lipid metabolism, significantly affecting their malignant characteristics, including self-renewal, differentiation, invasion, metastasis, and drug sensitivity and resistance. Prominent oncogenic signaling pathways that modulate metabolic gene expression and elevate metabolic enzyme activity include phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT, MAPK, NF-kB, Wnt, Notch, and Hippo pathway. Conversely, when metabolic processes are not regulated, they can lead to malfunctions in cellular signal transduction pathways. This, in turn, enables uncontrolled cancer cell growth by providing the necessary energy, building blocks, and redox potentials. Therefore, targeting lipid metabolism-associated oncogenic signaling pathways could be an effective therapeutic approach to decrease cancer incidence and promote survival. This review sheds light on the interactions between lipid reprogramming and signaling pathways in cancer. Exploring lipid metabolism as a target could provide a promising approach for creating anticancer treatments by identifying metabolic inhibitors. Additionally, we have also provided an overview of the drugs targeting lipid metabolism in cancer in this review.

Keywords: anticancer therapy; cancer; cell signaling; lipid metabolism; oncogenic proteins.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Lipid metabolic reprogramming in the process of cancer development.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
An overview of lipid metabolism related transcription factors and their role in cancer progression.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Intricate association between (A) PI3K/Akt/mTOR and (B) NF-κB signaling pathways and aberrant lipid metabolism in cancer.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Intricate association between (A) STAT3 and (B) Hippo signaling pathways and aberrant lipid metabolism in cancer.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Intricate association between (A) Wnt and (B) Notch signaling pathways and aberrant lipid metabolism in cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Abumrad N., Coburn C., Ibrahimi A. (1999). Membrane proteins implicated in long-chain fatty acid uptake by mammalian cells: CD36, FATP and FABPm. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1441 (1), 4–13. 10.1016/s1388-1981(99)00137-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Accioly M. T., Pacheco P., Maya-Monteiro C. M., Carrossini N., Robbs B. K., Oliveira S. S., et al. (2008). Lipid bodies are reservoirs of cyclooxygenase-2 and sites of prostaglandin-E2 synthesis in colon cancer cells. Cancer Res. 68 (6), 1732–1740. 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-07-1999 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ahmadi M., Amiri S., Pecic S., Machaj F., Rosik J., Łos M. J., et al. (2020). Pleiotropic effects of statins: a focus on cancer. Biochim. Biophys. Acta Mol. Basis Dis. 1866 (12), 165968. 10.1016/j.bbadis.2020.165968 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Airley R. E., McHugh P., Evans A. R., Harris B., Winchester L., Buffa F. M., et al. (2014). Role of carbohydrate response element-binding protein (ChREBP) in generating an aerobic metabolic phenotype and in breast cancer progression. Br. J. Cancer 110 (3), 715–723. 10.1038/bjc.2013.765 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ali A., Levantini E., Teo J. T., Goggi J., Clohessy J. G., Wu C. S., et al. (2018). Fatty acid synthase mediates EGFR palmitoylation in EGFR mutated non-small cell lung cancer. EMBO Mol. Med. 10 (3), e8313. 10.15252/emmm.201708313 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

LinkOut - more resources