An emerging strategy in cancer drug development is to target key metabolic molecules in tumours. Researchers have pinpointed one for prostate cancer: an enzyme involved in glucose metabolism that seems to be crucial to cancer survival.

Almut Schulze at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and her colleagues found that the survival of three different prostate cancer cell lines depended on glucose. Using small RNA molecules to silence genes for 222 enzymes and other molecules involved in glucose metabolism, the authors screened these cells for genes required for survival, and homed in on one, PFKFB4. Shutting this gene down in tumour cells stopped them from growing when they were injected into mice.

PFKFB4 enables cancer cells to produce antioxidants, which neutralize harmful oxidizing molecules. The researchers say that this protein could be a target for cancer drugs.

Cancer Discov. http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-11-0234 (2012)