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Cell signalling

Nutrient sensing lost in cancer

Nature volume 498, pages 444–445 (2013)Cite this article

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Cells can sense and respond to fluctuations in nutrient availability. Mutations that disrupt such lines of nutrient communication with the cellular growth machinery seem to contribute to the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells.

Various signals, including those stemming from nutrients such as carbohydrates and amino acids, tightly coordinate cell growth. These signals can be altered in disease states, such as obesity and cancer. Reporting in Science, Bar-Peled et al.1 identify a protein complex called GATOR that is crucial for linking nutrient sensing by the cell to the control of cell growth. They also find that this complex is disrupted in some cancers, hinting at a mechanism by which cancer cells disconnect their growth from normal growth-control signals.

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Figure 1: Nutrient sensing and mTORC1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Suchithra Menon and Brendan D. Manning are in the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,

    Suchithra Menon & Brendan D. Manning

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  1. Suchithra Menon
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  2. Brendan D. Manning
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Correspondence to Brendan D. Manning.

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Menon, S., Manning, B. Nutrient sensing lost in cancer. Nature 498, 444–445 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/498444a

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