SOME GOODIES:

“Our data support the hypothesis that glutamine is a likely alternative energy source during niacin deficiency”

“Since the levels of NAD in niacin deficient cells are greatly reduced, it is likely that NAD-depleted cells are incapable to sustain their energy requirements solely by glycolysis. Therefore, niacin deficient cells would require an additional carbon source. One such source available from the cell culture media is glutamine. We hypothesized that if glutamine is a crucial carbon source for NAD-depleted cells, these cells would be far more sensitive than control cells if it was removed from the media. Completely eliminating glutamine from the media lead to cell death both in control and depleted cells”

Niacin restriction upregulates NADPH oxidase and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human keratinocytes.
https://europepmc.org/article/med/17997992

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“One concern about the administration of Gln to cancer patients is that it would be employed by rapidly proliferating cells, including malignant cells,51 with the potential enhancement of tumour growth. However, some experimental data appear to indicate that dietary supplements do not increase tumour growth,52 rather, it diminishes growth53,54 by enhancing NK cell activity through the support of host Gln stores and glutathione (GSH) production. Presently, it remains to be clarified as to whether Gln might inhibit tumour metastasis”

“we demonstrated for the first time in this study that Gln [glutamine] inhibited PAF-associated tumour metastasis, in which MAPKs perform a critical role, via the deactivation of ERK, JNK, and p38 MAPKs.”

Glutamine inhibits platelet-activating factor-mediated pulmonary tumour metastasis
https://sci-hub.ru/10.1016/j.ejca.2011.07.013

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“We further demonstrated that dietary glutamine supplementation partially increased glutamine levels and restored potent antitumor responses”

Glutamine is essential for overcoming the immunosuppressive microenvironment in malignant salivary gland tumors
https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.29.490103v1

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“Taken together, our results provide a previously unidentified mechanism by which glutamine supplementation inhibits melanoma tumour growth and suggests a previously unrealized therapeutic avenue using glutamine supplementation in melanoma to cooperate with current therapies and potentially combat resistance mechanisms. Furthermore, our results provide important evidence that glutamine supplementation, rather than the nutrient-limiting approaches, is a simple dietary intervention that has the potential to block melanoma tumour growth and potentiate the effects of anti-melanoma treatments by suppressing epigenetically activated oncogenic pathways.”

Dietary glutamine supplementation suppresses epigenetically-activated oncogenic pathways to inhibit melanoma tumour growth
https://nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17181-w

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“The overall incidence of postoperative complications was 14.9 and 36.8% in the glutamine and control groups, respectively, indicating that glutamine significantly reduced the incidence of postoperative complications [p < 0.001; risk ratio (RR) 0.41 [95% CI 0.30–0.54]]. Compared with the control group, the glutamine group had a significantly lower postoperative infection complications rate (10.5 vs. 28.9%; p < 0.001; RR 0.36 [95% CI 0.26–0.52]).”

“Moreover, glutamine supplementation alleviated the decrease in albumin (p < 0.001), total protein (p < 0.001), and prealbumin levels (p < 0.001).”

Postoperative parenteral glutamine supplementation improves the short-term outcomes in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery: A propensity score matching study

Tang, Gang et al in Frontiers in Nutrition (2023.03)

https://frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1040893/full