Altered Metabolic Traits in Gastrointestinal Tract Cancers

The special issue is conceived to focus on a very relevant and cardinal process of “Altered metabolic traits in gastro-intestinal (GI) tract cancers” which has revolutionized our understanding of the current challenges in the field and thus devise novel therapeutic targets. Cancer cells possess impeccable abilities to hijack metabolic networks resulting into a chaos leading to a complete dysregulation of various metabolic pathways viz. aerobic glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation etc. Subsequently this may lead to an imbalance in redox homeostasis, (anabolic/catabolic) bioenergetics and synthesis of biosynthetic intermediate molecules essential for cell proliferation, differentiation, resulting into malignant transformation, cancer cell stemness, plasticity, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, etc. in a hostile tumor microenvironment. Reprogrammed tumor metabolism and subsequent influence of onco-metabolites on various cellular machineries such as epigenetic dysregulation, modulation of anti-tumor adaptive immunity, inflammatory cell response to cell insult/injury etc have recently gained traction. Factors such as cell-cell interactions in 2D and 3D formats, nutrient stress adaptability of tumor cells due to fluctuating gradients of onco-metabolites within and among different tumor cells, metabolic flexibility, intra- and inter-tumor metabolic heterogeneity and their collective effect on cell-response to drugs are now being probed. Almost a century ago, Nobel Laureate Otto Heinrich Warburg had identified the significance of altered metabolic traits (glucose metabolism) in cancer, but only the last decades have witnessed research surging into varied directions. Therefore, in this special issue we are pleased to invite original research and review articles, case studies, methods etc covering research areas including but not limited to the following topics:

• Investigation of the reprogrammed metabolic landscape in GI tract tumors-current state-of-the-art

• Strategies (in 2D and 3D in vitro formats) to study altered metabolic flux and reprogramming in cancers of the GI tract

• Altered dynamics (epigenetic dysregulation, inflammation, and tumor immunity etc) associated with tumor metabolism during progression of GI tract tumors

• At the cross-roads of altered tumor metabolism and cell signaling cascades favoring tumor formation and progression

• Crosstalk of altered tumor metabolic traits with the microenvironment in GI tract tumors

• Strategies to mitigate altered/dysregulated metabolic signaling in GI tract tumors