{"title":"Lactate and lactylation in tumor immunity.","authors":"Liu Song, Lingjuan Sun, Song Chen, Peixiang Lan","doi":"10.1007/s11684-025-1148-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Warburg effect, originally discovered by Otto Warburg, refers to the metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells from aerobic oxidation to glycolysis, enabling rapid energy production to support their growth and metastasis. This process is accompanied by the massive production and accumulation of lactate both intracellularly and extracellularly. The resulting acidic microenvironment impairs the normal physiological functions of immune cells and promotes tumor progression. An increasing number of studies indicate that lactate, a key metabolite in the tumor microenvironment (TME), acts as a pivotal immunosuppressive signaling molecule that modulates immune cell function. This review aims to comprehensively examine lactate's role as an immunosuppressive molecule in TME. It focuses on mechanisms such as membrane receptor binding, functional reshaping of immune cells via lactate shuttle transport, epigenetic regulation of gene expression through histone lactylation, and modulation of protein structure and function through nonhistone lactylation, emphasizing lactate's importance in immune regulation within the TME. Ultimately, this review offers novel insights into immunosuppressive therapies aimed at targeting lactate function.</p>","PeriodicalId":12558,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers of Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers of Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-025-1148-0","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The Warburg effect, originally discovered by Otto Warburg, refers to the metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells from aerobic oxidation to glycolysis, enabling rapid energy production to support their growth and metastasis. This process is accompanied by the massive production and accumulation of lactate both intracellularly and extracellularly. The resulting acidic microenvironment impairs the normal physiological functions of immune cells and promotes tumor progression. An increasing number of studies indicate that lactate, a key metabolite in the tumor microenvironment (TME), acts as a pivotal immunosuppressive signaling molecule that modulates immune cell function. This review aims to comprehensively examine lactate's role as an immunosuppressive molecule in TME. It focuses on mechanisms such as membrane receptor binding, functional reshaping of immune cells via lactate shuttle transport, epigenetic regulation of gene expression through histone lactylation, and modulation of protein structure and function through nonhistone lactylation, emphasizing lactate's importance in immune regulation within the TME. Ultimately, this review offers novel insights into immunosuppressive therapies aimed at targeting lactate function.
Frontiers of MedicineONCOLOGYMEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL&-MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL
CiteScore
18.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
800
期刊介绍:
Frontiers of Medicine is an international general medical journal sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China. The journal is jointly published by the Higher Education Press and Springer. Since the first issue of 2010, this journal has been indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE.
Frontiers of Medicine is dedicated to publishing original research and review articles on the latest advances in clinical and basic medicine with a focus on epidemiology, traditional Chinese medicine, translational research, healthcare, public health and health policies.