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REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Metabolism
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1509662
This article is part of the Research Topic Targeting Serine Metabolism in Cancer View all 4 articles
The Role and Research Progress of Serine Metabolism in Tumor Cells
Provisionally accepted- School of Basic Medicine, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
Serine is crucial for tumor initiation, progression, and adaptive immunity. Metabolic pathways for serine synthesis, acquisition, and utilization in tumors and tumor-associated cells are influenced by various physiological factors and the tumor microenvironment, leading to metabolic reprogramming and amplification. Excessive serine metabolism promotes abnormal macromolecule biosynthesis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and epigenetic modifications, driving malignant transformation, proliferation, metastasis, immune suppression, and drug resistance in tumor cells.Restricting dietary serine intake or reducing the expression of serine synthetic enzymes can effectively slow tumor growth and extend patient survival. Consequently, targeting serine metabolism has emerged as a novel and promising research focus in cancer research. This paper reviews serine metabolic pathways and their roles in tumor development. It summarizes the influencing factors of serine metabolism. The article explores the significance of serine synthesis and metabolizing enzymes, along with related biomarkers, in tumor diagnosis and treatment, providing new insights for developing targeted therapies that modulate serine metabolism in cancer.
Keywords: Serine metabolism, Cancer, one carbon metabolism, serine catabolism, the Immunosuppressive Microenvironment
Received: 11 Oct 2024; Accepted: 21 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LYU, BAO, Cai, Wang, Liu, Sun and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yang Sun, School of Basic Medicine, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
Xiaoyang Hu, School of Basic Medicine, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
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