Toggle light / dark theme

A recent publication in Cell demonstrates that arginine, an amino acid that facilitates various cellular processes, including cellular growth, also promotes tumor growth. The study shows that arginine reprograms the metabolism of the tumor, a mechanism that many cancer cells use to replicate continuously.

The liver’s primary functions include metabolizing nutrients obtained from food and storing energy for later use by the body. Thus, the liver is highly involved in the body’s metabolic balance.

Over the past two decades, a growing body of evidence suggests cancer is a metabolic disease. Almost all cancers, regardless of the tissue in which they develop, have an impairment in energy metabolism.

This work is published in GEN Biotechnology in the paper, “Mapping the Spatial Proteome of Head and Neck Tumors: Key Immune Mediators and Metabolic Determinants in the Tumor Microenvironment.”

HNSCCs are tumors that develop in the lip, oral cavity, larynx, salivary glands, nose, sinuses, or the skin of the face. They are the seventh most common cancer globally causing more than 300,000 deaths annually. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promise in treating recurrent/metastatic cases.

Here, researchers present a framework for single-cell spatial analysis of proteins to analyze HNSCCs. First, they developed an ultra-high plex antibody panel with antibodies for detection of immune cells, cancer cells, and markers that identify cellular metabolism, apoptosis and stress, tumor invasion, and metastasis, as well as cellular proliferation and deregulation.

Data serves as the foundation of today’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, and that foundation keeps expanding. “The appreciation of the value of data and need for quality data has grown in recent years,” says Anastasia Christianson, PhD, vice president and global head of AI, machine learning and data, Pfizer. She notes that the concept of FAIR data—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable data1—is becoming more widely accepted and more closely achieved.

Part of the transition in data use arises almost philosophically. “There has been a cultural shift or mindset change from data management for the purpose of storage and archiving to data management for the purpose of data analysis and reuse,” Christianson explains. “This is probably the most significant advance. The exponential growth of analytics capabilities and artificial intelligence have probably raised both the expectations for and appreciation of the value of data and the need for good data management and data quality.”