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SELENIUM

A micronutrient with major effects on cancer cell viability

Nature Metabolism volume 2, pages 564–565 (2020)Cite this article

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Selenium is a micronutrient essential for the generation of selenoproteins, which function predominantly by detoxifying cellular reactive oxygen species. In this issue, Carlisle et al. describe a novel mechanism whereby perturbing selenium utilization via inhibition of SEPHS2, a component of the selenocysteine-biosynthesis pathway, results in selenide poisoning and cancer cell death.

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Fig. 1: Selenophilic cancer cells are dependent on SEPHS2 for selenide detoxification.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Translational Cancer Metabolism Lab, Centre for Tumour Biology, Barts Cancer Institute (BCI), Cancer Research UK Centre of Excellence, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Anastasia Kapara & Barrie Peck

  2. The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, UK

    Alessandro Vannini & Barrie Peck

  3. Fondazione Human Technopole, Structural Biology Research Centre, Milan, Italy

    Alessandro Vannini

Authors
  1. Anastasia Kapara
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  2. Alessandro Vannini
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  3. Barrie Peck
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Contributions

B.P., A.K. and A.V wrote the article. All authors approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barrie Peck.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kapara, A., Vannini, A. & Peck, B. A micronutrient with major effects on cancer cell viability. Nat Metab 2, 564–565 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-020-0244-3

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