Nature Communications (Oct 2022)

Tumor-produced and aging-associated oncometabolite methylmalonic acid promotes cancer-associated fibroblast activation to drive metastatic progression

  • Zhongchi Li,
  • Vivien Low,
  • Valbona Luga,
  • Janet Sun,
  • Ethan Earlie,
  • Bobak Parang,
  • Kripa Shobana Ganesh,
  • Sungyun Cho,
  • Jennifer Endress,
  • Tanya Schild,
  • Mengying Hu,
  • David Lyden,
  • Wenbing Jin,
  • Chunjun Guo,
  • Noah Dephoure,
  • Lewis C. Cantley,
  • Ashley M. Laughney,
  • John Blenis

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33862-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Methylmalonic acid (MMA) is increased in aging as well as produced by advanced tumors, and can drive pro-aggressive changes in these tumor cells. Here, the authors show that MMA can also act on fibroblasts in the tumor microenvironment, recruiting and activating them to further support tumor progression.