Targeting Cancer Cell Intracellular Metabolism as a Strategy against Therapy Resistance

Abnormal metabolism is a hallmark of cancer. To sustain high proliferation rates, tumor cells must gain energy quickly by reprogramming metabolism. Moreover, cancer cells use nutrients to produce metabolic molecules of cell anabolism to meet the precursors needs of cell maintenance and biosynthesis. Cancer treatments including targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy generally disrupt cancer cell metabolism to retard proliferation and eliminate cancer cells. However, in response to the pressure of treatment disruptions, some cancer cells can establish a new balance to sustain survivorship. Cancer cells can even adapt to anticancer agents under particular conditions, which leads to drug resistance and ultimately therapy failure. Therapeutic resistance is an important obstacle in tumor therapy. However, there are still no good strategies to overcome therapeutic resistance. To limit the occurrence of drug resistance, new treatments are required to target the establishment of novel metabolism under such treatment disruptions. Therefore, targeting cancer cell intracellular metabolism becomes a strategy against drug resistance. As a result, it is crucial to understand the characteristics of cancer cell intracellular metabolism under specific treatments. In doing so, we can identify targets that potentiate the antineoplastic effects of existing treatments and overcome drug resistance.

This research topic aims to provide an overview of the current and state-of-the-art strategies targeting cancer cell intracellular metabolism to understand the mechanisms of drug resistance and overcome drug resistance. It also focuses on newly designed drugs and combined treatments targeting intracellular metabolism for tumor therapy.

We welcome submissions of Original Research, Clinical Trial articles, and Reviews on strategies targeting cancer cell intracellular metabolism in enhancing antineoplastic effects of anti-cancer drugs and overcoming resistance, focusing on but not limited to the following subtopics:

• Novel drug combinations targeting intracellular metabolism to overcome anti-cancer drug resistance
• Glycolysis impacts on chemotherapy and molecularly targeted therapies resistance
• Overcome drug resistance by targeting cancer treatment-specific metabolic dependency
• Modification of energy metabolism for cancer therapy
• Targeting nucleotide acquisition and synthesis to overcome anti-cancer drug resistance
• Targeting de novo lipid synthesis in cancer therapy and drug resistance
• Non-tumor cells can influence tumor cell metabolism in cancer therapy and drug resistance
• New strategies using physical approaches to target metabolism in cancer therapy and drug resistance

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.