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D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes?

α-amino acids exist in two configurations, named D-(dextro) and L-(levo) enantiomers. L-amino acids are used in protein synthesis and play a central role in cell metabolism. The effects of the L-amino acid composition of foods and the dietary modifications of this composition on the efficacy of canc...

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Autores principales: Murtas, Giulia, Pollegioni, Loredano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9962368/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36834677
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24043274
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author Murtas, Giulia
Pollegioni, Loredano
author_facet Murtas, Giulia
Pollegioni, Loredano
author_sort Murtas, Giulia
collection PubMed
description α-amino acids exist in two configurations, named D-(dextro) and L-(levo) enantiomers. L-amino acids are used in protein synthesis and play a central role in cell metabolism. The effects of the L-amino acid composition of foods and the dietary modifications of this composition on the efficacy of cancer therapies have been widely investigated in relation to the growth and reproduction of cancerous cells. However, less is known about the involvement of D-amino acids. In recent decades, D-amino acids have been identified as natural biomolecules that play interesting and specific roles as common components of the human diet. Here, we focus on recent investigations showing altered D-amino acid levels in specific cancer types and on the various roles proposed for these biomolecules related to cancer cell proliferation, cell protection during therapy, and as putative, innovative biomarkers. Notwithstanding recent progress, the relationship between the presence of D-amino acids, their nutritional value, and cancer cell proliferation and survival represents an underrated scientific issue. Few studies on human samples have been reported to date, suggesting a need for routine analysis of D-amino acid content and an evaluation of the enzymes involved in regulating their levels in clinical samples in the near future.
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spelling pubmed-99623682023-02-26 D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes? Murtas, Giulia Pollegioni, Loredano Int J Mol Sci Review α-amino acids exist in two configurations, named D-(dextro) and L-(levo) enantiomers. L-amino acids are used in protein synthesis and play a central role in cell metabolism. The effects of the L-amino acid composition of foods and the dietary modifications of this composition on the efficacy of cancer therapies have been widely investigated in relation to the growth and reproduction of cancerous cells. However, less is known about the involvement of D-amino acids. In recent decades, D-amino acids have been identified as natural biomolecules that play interesting and specific roles as common components of the human diet. Here, we focus on recent investigations showing altered D-amino acid levels in specific cancer types and on the various roles proposed for these biomolecules related to cancer cell proliferation, cell protection during therapy, and as putative, innovative biomarkers. Notwithstanding recent progress, the relationship between the presence of D-amino acids, their nutritional value, and cancer cell proliferation and survival represents an underrated scientific issue. Few studies on human samples have been reported to date, suggesting a need for routine analysis of D-amino acid content and an evaluation of the enzymes involved in regulating their levels in clinical samples in the near future. MDPI 2023-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC9962368/ /pubmed/36834677 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24043274 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Murtas, Giulia
Pollegioni, Loredano
D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes?
title D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes?
title_full D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes?
title_fullStr D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes?
title_full_unstemmed D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes?
title_short D-Amino Acids and Cancer: Friends or Foes?
title_sort d-amino acids and cancer: friends or foes?
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9962368/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36834677
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24043274
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