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Review
. 2022 Aug 4;23(15):8698.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23158698.

Importance of GLUT Transporters in Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Abdelrahman Ismail  1 , Marina Tanasova  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Importance of GLUT Transporters in Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Abdelrahman Ismail et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Facilitative sugar transporters (GLUTs) are the primary method of sugar uptake in all mammalian cells. There are 14 different types of those transmembrane proteins, but they transport only a handful of substrates, mainly glucose and fructose. This overlap and redundancy contradict the natural tendency of cells to conserve energy and resources, and has led researchers to hypothesize that different GLUTs partake in more metabolic roles than just sugar transport into cells. Understanding those roles will lead to better therapeutics for a wide variety of diseases and disorders. In this review we highlight recent discoveries of the role GLUTs play in different diseases and disease treatments.

Keywords: GLUT inhibitors; GLUT therapeutics; GLUTs; diagnostic biomarkers; metabolic diseases; sugar transport.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The structure of 2,5-anhydro-d-mannitol (left) compared to the structure of fructose.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The structure of KL-11743 and its IC50 values against all class I GLUTs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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