Amino Acid Profiles in the Biological Fluids and Tumor Tissue of CRC Patients

Abstract

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and essential players in pathways such as the citric acid and urea cycle, purine and pyrimidine biosynthesis, and redox cell signaling. Therefore, it is unsurprising that these molecules have a significant role in cancer metabolism and its metabolic plasticity. As one of the most prevalent malign diseases, colorectal cancer needs biomarkers for its early detection, prognostic, and prediction of response to therapy. However, the available biomarkers for this disease must be more powerful and present several drawbacks, such as high costs and complex laboratory procedures. Metabolomics has gathered substantial attention in the past two decades as a screening platform to study new metabolites, partly due to the development of techniques, such as mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography, which have become standard practice in diagnostic procedures for other diseases. Extensive metabolomic studies have been performed in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in the past years, and several exciting results concerning amino acid metabolism have been found. This review aims to gather and present findings concerning alterations in the amino acid plasma pool of colorectal cancer patients.

Keywords: amino acids; biomarkers; colorectal cancer; diagnosis; laboratorial findings; metabolomics; prognosis; treatment response.

Figure 1

Steps of the amino acid system. For example: how glutamine and leucine levels can interfere with cell metabolism, growth, and proliferation, implying a worse prognosis in CRC (reprinted with permission—Dias et al., 2021 [11]).