ArticleNature2018
Asparagine bioavailability governs metastasis in a model of breast cancer.
Article in Nature, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 329 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
329 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 543 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global research trends and emerging themes in amino acid deprivation based cancer therapy: a bibliometric and visualization study.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- The underexplored links between cancer and the internal body climate: Implications for cancer prevention and treatment.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Effect ofCancer science · 2023Trial
- Metabolites and cancer metastasis.Oncogene · 2026Review
- Engineering Salmonella as an immune-metabolic modulator of the tumor microenvironment.Trends in biotechnology · 2026Review
- Chiral Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Induce Breast Cancer Lung Metastasis.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- PKPD-Based Translational Modeling of Calaspargase Pegol Preclinical Activity in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.European journal of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics · 2026Article
- Article
- N-Acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10) at the crossroads of metabolism, immunology, and cancer biology.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Review
- RNA cytosine modifications regulates musculoskeletal disorders.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Direct pharmacological targeting of asparagine synthetase to overcome resistance to L-asparaginase in ALL therapy.JCI insight · 2026Article
- Tumoral Metabolism at the Intersection of Oncogene Signaling, Epigenetics and Immunology: Emerging Therapeutic Strategies in Cancer.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- The lethal symbiont: exploring the pathophysiology of cancer.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- Steric stabilization-independent stealth cloak enables nanoreactors-mediated starvation therapy against refractory cancer.Nature biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Compression-induced metabolic adaptation drives confined tumor cell migration and distant metastasis via malate-dependent microtubule reinforcement.Cell research · 2026Article
- METTL1-mediated mOncogene · 2026Article
- Amino Acids as Targets for Immunotherapy against Solid Tumors.Cell biochemistry and biophysics · 2026Review
- Aggressive breast cancers secrete heme metabolites to alter macrophage immune suppression and function.Communications biology · 2026Article
- ETV4 Promotes Colorectal Cancer Progression by Reprogramming Asparagine Metabolism to Remodel the Stromal Microenvironment.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- ACSL5 Mediates Adaptation to the Palmitic Acid-Enriched Pulmonary Microenvironment to Enhance Metastatic Breast Cancer Cell Survival and Lung Metastasis.Cancer research · 2026Article
269 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
21 authors at 12 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Using a functional model of breast cancer heterogeneity, we previously showed that clonal sub-populations proficient at generating circulating tumour cells were not all equally capable of forming metastases at secondary sites. A combination of differential expression and focused in vitro and in vivo RNA interference screens revealed candidate drivers of metastasis that discriminated metastatic clones. Among these, asparagine synthetase expression in a patient's primary tumour was most strongly correlated with later metastatic relapse. Here we show that asparagine bioavailability strongly influences metastatic potential. Limiting asparagine by knockdown of asparagine synthetase, treatment with l-asparaginase, or dietary asparagine restriction reduces metastasis without affecting growth of the primary tumour, whereas increased dietary asparagine or enforced asparagine synthetase expression promotes metastatic progression. Altering asparagine availability in vitro strongly influences invasive potential, which is correlated with an effect on proteins that promote the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. This provides at least one potential mechanism for how the bioavailability of a single amino acid could regulate metastatic progression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.