Multi-Omics Dissection of EMT-Driven Cancer Metabolism in Drug Resistance and Metastasis
A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Cell Metabolism".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2025 | Viewed by 17
Special Issue Editor
Interests: intricate mechanisms of cell metabolism; metabolic diseases; cancer progression and treatment; molecular biology and oncology; metabolic pathways; metabolic dysfunction; cancer; therapeutic interventions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue will uncover critical metabolic adaptations driving cancer progression, with special emphasis on the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), drug resistance, and metastatic capacity. By leveraging a multi-omics framework, which integrates genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, it seeks to comprehensively map the metabolic shifts that enable tumor cells to transition to more invasive phenotypes and evade standard therapies. This Special Issue will begin by characterizing EMT-related metabolic changes and profiling cell lines at distinct EMT stages. In parallel, drug-resistant and drug-sensitive cancer sublines will be compared to pinpoint metabolic determinants of therapeutic resistance. Multi-omics data integration will uncover critical enzymes, transporters, and pathways that become hyperactive or essential during EMT and under selective pressure from chemotherapy or targeted agents. Subsequent steps will explore how these metabolic shifts fuel metastatic dissemination, highlighting pathways that support tumor cell survival and outgrowth at secondary sites. Candidate metabolic vulnerabilities, identified through data integration and network-based analyses, will be functionally validated via genetic knockdowns and pharmacological inhibition, both in vitro and in mouse models. By systematically dissecting cancer metabolism at multiple molecular layers, this proposal promises to deliver targeted intervention strategies, halting EMT-driven metastasis and overcoming drug resistance. Ultimately, these metabolism-driven therapies could be integrated with existing treatments, offering a more personalized approach to limit tumor progression and improve patient outcomes.
Dr. Lei Huang
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- multi-omics
- EMT
- drug-resistant
- metastasis
- metabolism-driven therapies
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