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REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Molecular Targets and Therapeutics
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1557162
This article is part of the Research Topic The Role of Cell Metabolism in Development, Drug Resistance, and Survival Assessment in Cancer View all articles
Dual roles of methylglyoxal in cancer
Provisionally accepted- Suzhou TCM Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Suzhou, China
ABSTRACT：Cancer treatment currently includes a variety of approaches. Chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy are combined based on cancer characteristics to develop personalized treatment plans. However, drug resistance can hinder the progress of treatment over time. Methylglyoxal (MG) is a metabolite with hormesis, exhibiting both pro-tumor and anti-tumor actions depending on its concentration during cancer progression. The MG-related metabolic pathway is being explored in the development of anti-cancer drugs, focusing on reducing MG stress or exploiting its cytotoxic effects to inhibit cancer progression. This article investigates the dual role of MG in cancer, emphasizing its effects on cell metabolism and tumor progression. It proposes MG capture therapy for the pre-cancerous stage and MG toxicity therapy for the cancer stage, contributing to the development of precise and individualized cancer treatments.
Keywords: Cancer, Hormesis, methylglyoxal, Glyoxalase 1, Therapeutics
Received: 08 Jan 2025; Accepted: 04 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Liu, Zhang and Liu. 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:
Min Liu, Suzhou TCM Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Suzhou, China
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