铁代谢与肿瘤发生关系的研究进展

Current progress of iron metabolism and tumor development

铁元素是生命活动的重要参与者,不仅参与细胞的氧化磷酸化过程、DNA合成及复制活动,还通过低氧诱导因子调控多个肿瘤发生相关基因。细胞癌变过程中改变了自身的铁代谢方式,使癌细胞成为铁元素的消耗大户。其中,铁的获取,外排,存储和调控在癌细胞中皆是紊乱的。因此,铁元素对肿瘤的生长,生存及转移具有重大潜在意义。文章综述了铁元素在癌细胞中的改变与肿瘤发生的关系以及目前铁螯合剂抑癌作用在临床运用中存在的问题,以肿瘤铁代谢作为治疗靶标可能为肿瘤的预后和治疗提供新思路。

Iron is an essential nutrient that not only participates in cell oxidative phosphorylation, DNA synthesis and replica-tion, but also regulates cancer associated genes through hypoxia-inducible factor （HIF）. In the process of cancerization, cells change the way of iron metabolism resulting in a high consumption of iron. In this case, pathways of iron acquisition, efflux, storage and regu-lation are perturbed. Therefore, iron can significantly contribute to tumor growth, cell survival and metastasis. In this paper, we sum-marize the iron changes in cancer cells and the relationship between the changes and tumorigenesis. We also briefly state the potential problems of current clinical using iron chelating agents in oncotherapy. Targeting iron metabolic pathways may provide new tools for cancer prognosis and therapy.