Glycine plays a key role in rapidly proliferating
cancer cells such as A549 cells. Targeting
glycine metabolism is considered as a potential means for
cancer treatment. However, the
drug-induced alterations in
glycine metabolism have not yet been investigated. Herein, a total of 34
glycine metabolites were examined in A549 cells with or without anticancer
drug treatment. This work showed all tested
anticancer agents could alter
glycine metabolism in A549 cells including inhibition of
pyruvate metabolism and down-regulation of
betaine aldehyde and 5'-phosphoribosylglycinamide. Principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least-squares discrimination analysis exhibited the difference between control and each
drug-treated group. In general,
cisplatin,
camptothecin, and SAHA could induce the significant down-regulation of more metabolites, compared with
afatinib,
gefitinib, and
targretin. Both
glycine,
serine and
threonine metabolism, and
purine metabolism were significantly disturbed by the treatment with
afatinib,
gefitinib, and
targretin. However, the treatment using
cisplatin,
camptothecin, and SAHA was considered to be highly responsible for the perturbation of
glycine,
serine and
threonine metabolism, and
cysteine and
methionine metabolism. Finally, multivariate analysis for control and all
drug-treated groups revealed 11 altered metabolites with a significant difference. It implies anti-
cancer agents with different mechanisms of action might induce different comprehensive changes of
glycine metabolomics. The current study provides fundamental insights into the acquisition of the role of anti-
cancer agents in
glycine metabolism while suppressing
cancer cell proliferation, and may aid the development of
cancer treatment targeting
glycine metabolism.