Metabolic Reprogramming in Health and Disease 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

Metabolism is broadly defined as the sum of biochemical processes in living organisms that either produce or consume energy.

It is widely acknowledged that metabolic perturbations, often genetically programmed, accompany common human diseases. Among these, cancer is a prime example of a disease with genetically defined, pathological metabolic perturbations. Indeed, metabolic reprogramming, such as enhanced aerobic glycolysis, mutations in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle metabolic enzymes, and dependence on lipid and glutamine metabolism are key characteristics of cancer cells. Therefore, addressing such metabolic perturbations is a very promising direction for anti-cancer therapies that, in combination with conventional chemotherapeutic agents, may enhance therapeutic efficacy and clinical outcomes.

One of the main challenges in human metabolism research is to analyze the impact of disease on metabolic flux in vivo by relying on the use of sensitive and efficient methods, such as NMR spectroscopy or mass spectrometry techniques, in order to measure the transfer of carbon, nitrogen, etc., in metabolic pathways of live subjects, with and without disease. These approaches are becoming increasingly used and will likely find key applications in understanding the metabolic basis of common human diseases, paving the way for the translation of this knowledge into novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, “Metabolic Reprogramming in Health and Disease 2.0”, will focus on the broad impact of metabolism in cellular function, and how modern concepts of metabolism can inform our understanding of common diseases, including cancer, obesity, diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders, and considers the prospects of developing new metabolic approaches to disease treatment.

Authors are invited to contribute a full original research paper or review article for peer-review and publication.

Prof. Dr. Grazia Chiellini
Guest Editor

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