Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30061420›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2018

Inhibition of GCN2 sensitizes ASNS-low cancer cells to asparaginase by disrupting the amino acid response.

Akito Nakamura, Tadahiro Nambu, Shunsuke Ebara, Yuka Hasegawa, Kosei Toyoshima, Yasuko Tsuchiya, Daisuke Tomita, Jun Fujimoto, Osamu Kurasawa, Chisato Takahara and 5 more

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 119 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
119citing papers in PubMed
7.2field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

119 citing papers in PubMed, 164 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Review
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  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Infection and immunity · 2026
    Article
  7. Article
  8. A Novel Potent and Selective GCN2 Inhibitor, APL-4098, Has Antileukemic Activity through Dysregulation of Mitochondrial Function.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026
    Article
  9. The lncRNA DAMER selectively guides mNature cell biology · 2026
    Article
  10. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  11. Article
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  15. Article
  16. Review
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  18. Biomedicines · 2025
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

59 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Akito NakamuraOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co., Cambridge, MA 02139; akito.nakamura@takeda.com.
Tadahiro NambuOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Shunsuke EbaraOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Yuka HasegawaOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Kosei ToyoshimaOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Yasuko TsuchiyaOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Daisuke TomitaOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Jun FujimotoOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Osamu KurasawaOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Chisato TakaharaIntegrated Technology Research Laboratories, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Ayumi AndoIntegrated Technology Research Laboratories, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Ryuichi NishigakiIntegrated Technology Research Laboratories, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Yoshinori SatomiIntegrated Technology Research Laboratories, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Akito HataOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co., Cambridge, MA 02139.
Takahito HaraOncology Drug Discovery Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan.
Takeda (Japan) · JPTakeda (United States) · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

General control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) plays a major role in the cellular response to amino acid limitation. Although maintenance of amino acid homeostasis is critical for tumor growth, the contribution of GCN2 to cancer cell survival and proliferation is poorly understood. In this study, we generated GCN2 inhibitors and demonstrated that inhibition of GCN2 sensitizes cancer cells with low basal-level expression of asparagine synthetase (ASNS) to the antileukemic agent l-asparaginase (ASNase) in vitro and in vivo. We first tested acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells and showed that treatment with GCN2 inhibitors rendered ALL cells sensitive to ASNase by preventing the induction of ASNS, resulting in reduced levels of de novo protein synthesis. Comprehensive gene-expression profiling revealed that combined treatment with ASNase and GCN2 inhibitors induced the stress-activated MAPK pathway, thereby triggering apoptosis. By using cell-panel analyses, we also showed that acute myelogenous leukemia and pancreatic cancer cells were highly sensitive to the combined treatment. Notably, basal ASNS expression at protein levels was significantly correlated with sensitivity to combined treatment. These results provide mechanistic insights into the role of GCN2 in the amino acid response and a rationale for further investigation of GCN2 inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.

Indexed as

Amino AcidsAsparaginaseAspartate-Ammonia LigaseCell Line, TumorHumansNeoplasm ProteinsNeoplasmsProtein Kinase InhibitorsProtein Serine-Threonine KinasesAmino AcidsAsparaginaseAspartate-Ammonia LigaseEIF2AK4 protein, humanNeoplasm ProteinsProtein Kinase InhibitorsProtein Serine-Threonine KinasesALLASNSasparaginaseGCN2pancreatic cancer

Identifiers

PMID30061420
PMCPMC6099884
OpenAlexW2884856991

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.