Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Apr 26, 2022; 14(4): 267-286
Published online Apr 26, 2022. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v14.i4.267
Correlation between amino acid metabolism and self-renewal of cancer stem cells: Perspectives in cancer therapy
Qi Zhang, Wei Li
Qi Zhang, Wei Li, Cancer Center, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100015, China
Author contributions: Zhang Q wrote the manuscript; Li W reviewed the manuscript critically; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research (CFH), No. 2020-2-2175; and Beijing Talents Project.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei Li, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Cancer Center, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Jingshun East Street, Beijing 100015, China. weili8989@ccmu.edu.cn
Received: January 11, 2022
Peer-review started: January 11, 2022
First decision: March 11, 2022
Revised: March 19, 2022
Accepted: April 25, 2022
Article in press: April 25, 2022
Published online: April 26, 2022
Core Tip

Core Tip: Amino acid metabolism plays an important role in maintaining the stemness of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and is involved in regulating their self-renewal and differentiation potential. This review summarizes the relationship between CSCs and amino acid metabolism and discusses possible mechanisms via which amino acid metabolism regulates the self-renewal and differentiation potential of CSCs. The ultimate goal is to identify new targets and research directions for elimination of CSCs.