Accessing Cancer Metabolic Pathways by the Use of Microarray Technology

Abstract

Cancer metabolism is currently re-evaluated by the research community with the aim to investigate possible opportunities for the development of targeted therapies. Firstly discovered by Warburg et al. in the beginning of the last century, it is now a widely accepted hypothesis that cancer cells possess a severely deregulated form of glycolysis also under aerobic conditions. Accompanied by a deregulated glycolysis is an increasing dependence on glucose and glutamine, this characteristic offers a striking opportunity for new kinds of anti-cancer drugs. A feasible approach in this endeavour is the combined use of metabolic and transcriptomic information. Microarrays provide nowadays a reliable way for accessing the transcriptomic layer, even higher layers of biological information are in the scope. In this review we present the possibilities and also the limitations of this technique starting from the early phase of the microarray to the modern concepts of bioinformatics and systems biology. By highlighting also clinicopathological possibilities it is demonstrated that microarray technology is able to integrate various layers of biological information. Case studies incorporating aspects of cancer metabolism into therapy relevant applications and some potential new targets of cancer metabolism for novel cancer therapies are pointed out. These new cancer therapies can lead to the establishment of personalized medicine by use of custom based microarray platforms introducing treatment options in clinical decision making.

Transcriptome-based identification of new anti-anti-inflammatory and vasodilating properties of the n-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid in vascular endothelial cell under proinflammatory conditions

“…Although several recent studies have demonstrated that n-3 PUFAs may positively affect endothelial dysfunction [ 7 ], a comprehensive evaluation of the endothelial genomic effects exerted by n-3 PUFAs is lacking [ 8 ]. Microarray analysis, the high-throughput genomic tool that allows the simultaneous comparison of thousands of genes, is a useful tool to investigate pathophysiological mechanisms involved in a variety of human diseases, including atherosclerosis [ 9 ], and cancer [ 10 ], in a fashion not biased or restricted by a priori hypotheses. Cluster analysis of resulting data on transcriptional profiling also has the potential of revealing distinctive patterns of gene expression, thus providing novel information on the influence of n-3 PUFAs in vascular pathophysiology.…”

Regulation of cell survival by the HIP-55 signaling network

“…Microarray technology has been used to study different types of cancer [16][17][18][19] and is a useful tool to profile gene expression patterns that can facilitate diagnosis, predict response to therapy, find new biomarkers and examine the development of drug resistance in cancer. [20][21][22][23] Recent expression profiling studies from other groups show that HIP-55 is highly expressed in squamous cervical cancer patients and in pancreatic cancer with lymph node metastasis.…”