Scientists show that drugs targeting tumour metabolism will not stop Natural Killer cells

Source: eCancer, June 2018

Scientists have just made an important discovery as to how cancer-targeting ‘Natural Killer’ (NK) cells are fuelled in the body, which has significant implications for related therapies. They found that glutamine – vital for making the energy that fuels tumour cell growth – is not an important fuel for making energy in NK cells, which instead primarily use glucose. As a result the door is now open to targeting glutamine metabolism in tumour cells, as any drugs that do this will not hinder our cancer-killing NK cells.

The scientists, led by Ussher Assistant Professor in Immunometabolism at Trinity College Dublin, Dr David Finlay, have just published their findings in leading journal Nature Communications.