No Back-up Plan: Loss of Isozyme Diversity as a Promising Therapeutic Strategy for Cancer

Abstract

Metabolic rewiring in cancer cells supports many aspects of tumor growth. Understanding the mechanisms that result in metabolic rewiring, such as altered enzyme expression, is key to identifying therapeutic vulnerabilities that selectively target cancer cells. In this issue of Cancer Research, Marczyk and colleagues analyze matched tumor-normal enzyme expression across 14 different cancer types and report that cancer cells exhibit a general loss of isozyme diversity (LID) relative to corresponding normal tissue. The authors hypothesized that the presence of a cancer dominant isozyme may reduce metabolic plasticity and uniquely sensitize cancer cells to isozyme-specific inhibitors. Several LID targets were identified, including acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACC1), which the authors validated using a clinically available inhibitor of ACC1/2. This study is the first to systematically evaluate isozymes affected by LID, which represents a promising strategy to target the unique metabolic demands of cancer. See related article by Marczyk et al., p. 1698.