Research Progress of Glutamine Transporter ASCT2 in Cancer

Tumor cells have unique metabolic demands, and their metabolic processes require large amounts of glutamine. Glutamine is closely related to the growth and proliferation of tumor cells, and it can regulate cell survival, metabolism, signal transduction, autophagy, etc. Alanine-serine-cysteine transporter 2 (ASCT2) is Na⁺-dependent transmembrane transporter in charge of transporting glutamine and some macromolecular neutral amino acids. ASCT2 is overexpressed in many kinds of tumor cells, and the high expression of ASCT2 is positively correlated with the poor prognosis of tumor patients. Recently, the glutamine metabolism and transporters have been developed as therapeutic targets for treating various cancers. However, the studies on the glutamine transporters in China remain largely unknown. In this paper, we review the recent progress of structure, expression and role of ASCT2 in cancer.