ArticleLife science alliance2024
Porphyrin overdrive rewires cancer cell metabolism.
Article in Life science alliance, 2024. 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 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Study of the Spectral-Luminescent Properties of Saliva in Patients With Lung Cancer.Journal of biophotonics · 2026Article
- ALR couples IMS redox and heme biosynthesis beyond the disulfide relay.Science advances · 2026Article
- More than a ring: the emerging role of heme in angiogenesis.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- 5-ALA in Oncology: Current Clinical Applications, Biological Limitations, and Emerging Translational Strategies.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Comprehensive bioinformatics and experimental analysis of PPOX reveals its carcinogenic effect in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.Translational andrology and urology · 2026Article
- The Queen and the Dark Twin: Heme, Protoporphyrin IX, and State Transitions in Liver Metabolism.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Aggressive breast cancers secrete heme metabolites to alter macrophage immune suppression and function.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Russian Dolls of Heme Metabolism in Malaria-Infected Red Blood Cells: Nested Vulnerabilities and Therapeutic Opportunities.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Substantial unannotated noncoding transcripts in tumors may transcriptionally regulate cancer-related genes.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Targeting Infected Host Cell Heme Metabolism to Kill Malaria Parasites.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Spatial Transcriptomics Reveals Distinct Architectures but Shared Vulnerabilities in Primary and Metastatic Liver Tumors.Cancers · 2025Article
- Enhanced photodynamic therapy of cancer using porphyrin-based nanoparticles synthesizedRSC advances · 2025Article
- Anticancer Activity of Ether Derivatives of Chrysin.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Heme promotes venetoclax resistance in multiple myeloma through MEK-ERK signaling and purine biosynthesis.Blood · 2025Article
- Tongue coating microbiota-based machine learning for diagnosing digestive system tumours.Journal of oral microbiology · 2025Article
- Harnessing Porphyrin Accumulation in Liver Cancer: Combining Genomic Data and Drug Targeting.Biomolecules · 2024Article
- Article
- Multi-Wavelength Raman Differentiation of Malignant Skin Neoplasms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
All cancer cells reprogram metabolism to support aberrant growth. Here, we report that cancer cells employ and depend on imbalanced and dynamic heme metabolic pathways, to accumulate heme intermediates, that is, porphyrins. We coined this essential metabolic rewiring "porphyrin overdrive" and determined that it is cancer-essential and cancer-specific. Among the major drivers are genes encoding mid-step enzymes governing the production of heme intermediates. CRISPR/Cas9 editing to engineer leukemia cell lines with impaired heme biosynthetic steps confirmed our whole-genome data analyses that porphyrin overdrive is linked to oncogenic states and cellular differentiation. Although porphyrin overdrive is absent in differentiated cells or somatic stem cells, it is present in patient-derived tumor progenitor cells, demonstrated by single-cell RNAseq, and in early embryogenesis. In conclusion, we identified a dependence of cancer cells on non-homeostatic heme metabolism, and we targeted this cancer metabolic vulnerability with a novel "bait-and-kill" strategy to eradicate malignant cells.
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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.