Tumor metabolome

The term tumor metabolome describes the characteristic metabolic phenotype of tumor cells.

Comparison of the metabolic characteristics of different tumor cell lines and tumors revealed that during tumorigenesis, the same alterations always occur in distinct metabolic parameters regardless of the basic metabolism of the tissues from which the tumor developed, such as brain or liver and regardless of the molecular mechanism by which tumorigenesis was induced.

The characteristic attributes of the tumor metabolome are:
 * high glycolytic enzyme activities
 * the expression of the pyruvate kinase isoenzyme type M2, which is mainly in its dimeric form (= Tumor M2-PK)
 * increased channeling of glucose carbons into synthetic processes, such as nucleic acid, amino acid and phospholipid synthesis
 * a high rate of pyrimidine and purine de novo synthesis
 * a low (ATP+GTP) : (CTP+UTP) ratio
 * low AMP levels
 * high glutaminolytic capacities
 * release of immunosuppressive substances
 * dependency on methionine