A paradigm shift in cancer research based on integrative multi-omics approaches: glutaminase serves as a pioneering cuproptosis-related gene in pan-cancer

Sep 21, 2026

Cuproptosis is a newly identified form of unprogrammed cell death, and glutaminase (GLS) has been linked to this pathway as a key metabolic regulator. However, GLS oncogenic roles and mechanisms across cancers remain unclear. This study integrates multi-omics to assess GLS differential expression, diagnostic and prognostic value, associations with tumor immune infiltration, genetic alterations, and drug sensitivity across multiple malignancies. Findings reveal cancer-specific GLS expression patterns, strong biomarker potential, and a GLS-related prognostic model in UCEC, alongside insights into immune infiltration, heterogeneity, stemness, and drug response.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

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Methods

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Shi et al. BMC Women's Health (2024) 24:213 BMC Women's Health [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03061-8](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03061-8) RESEARCH Open Access A paradigm shift in cancer research based on integrative multi-omics approaches: glutaminase serves as a pioneering cuproptosis-related gene in pan-cancer Hai-hong Shi 1, Joseph Mugaanyi2, Changjiang Lu 1, Yang Li3, Jing Huang 1* and Lei Dai 1* Abstract Background Cuproptosis is a newly identified form of unprogrammed cell death. As a pivotal metabolic regulator, glutaminase (GLS) has recently been discovered to be linked to cuproptosis. Despite this discovery, the oncogenic functions and mechanisms of GLS in various cancers are still not fully understood. Methods In this study, a comprehensive omics analysis was performed to investigate the differential expression levels, diagnostic and prognostic potential, correlation with tumor immune infiltration, genetic alterations, and drug sensitivity of GLS across multiple malignancies. Results Our findings revealed unique expression patterns of GLS across various cancer types and molecular subtypes of carcinomas, underscoring its pivotal role primarily in energy and nutrition metabolism. Additionally, GLS showed remarkable diagnostic and prognostic performance in specific cancers, suggesting its potential as a promising biomarker for cancer detection and prognosis. Furthermore, we focused on uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) and developed a novel prognostic model associated with GLS, indicating a close correlation between GLS and UCEC. Moreover, our exploration into immune infiltration, genetic heterogeneity, tumor stemness, and drug sensitivity provided novel insights and directions for future research and laid the foundation for high-quality verification. Conclusion Collectively, our study is the first comprehensive investigation of the biological and clinical significance of GLS in pan-cancer. In our study, GLS was identified as a promising biomarker for UCEC, providing valuable evidence and a potential target for anti-tumor therapy. Overall, our findings shed light on the multifaceted functions of GLS in cancer and offer new avenues for further research. Highlights • This original study unveiled the biological and clinical connections between the cuproptosis-related gene glutaminase (GLS) and pan-carcinoma. • This study presented an initial endeavor to validate the tumorigenic impact of GLS in pan-cancer. *Correspondence: Jing Huang [496468840@qq.com](496468840@qq.com)[ ](496468840@qq.com)Lei Dai [dl2006love@163.com](dl2006love@163.com) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/l](http://creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ([http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Shi et al. BMC Women's Health (2024) 24:213 Page 2 of 31 • A comprehensive bio-analysis was conducted to investigate

FAQs

What is cuproptosis and how is glutaminase (GLS) related to it?

Cuproptosis is a newly identified unprogrammed cell death pathway. GLS has been discovered to be linked to cuproptosis and functions as a metabolic regulator relevant to this process.

What multi-omics analyses were used to evaluate GLS across cancers?

The study performed comprehensive multi-omics analyses to examine GLS differential expression, diagnostic and prognostic potential, correlation with tumor immune infiltration, genetic alterations, and drug sensitivity across multiple malignancies.

How did GLS perform as a biomarker and what was done for UCEC?

GLS showed notable diagnostic and prognostic performance in specific cancers and was used to develop a novel GLS-associated prognostic model in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC). The results indicate close correlation between GLS and UCEC.

Sep 21, 2026

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