Nitrogen Metabolism in Cancer and Immunity

Abstract

As one of the fundamental requirements for cell growth and proliferation, nitrogen acquisition and utilization must be tightly regulated. Nitrogen can be generated from amino acids (AAs) and utilized for biosynthetic processes through transamination and deamination reactions. Importantly, limitations of nitrogen availability in cells can disrupt the synthesis of proteins, nucleic acids, and other important nitrogen-containing compounds. Rewiring cellular metabolism to support anabolic processes is a feature common to both cancer and proliferating immune cells. In this review, we discuss how nitrogen is utilized in biosynthetic pathways and highlight different metabolic and oncogenic programs that alter the flow of nitrogen to sustain biomass production and growth, an important emerging feature of cancer and immune cell proliferation.

Keywords: T cells; ammonia; cancer cells; nitrogen metabolism; non-essential amino acids; transaminases; tumor microenvironment.