A glutamine tug-of-war between cancer and immune cells: recent advances in unraveling the ongoing battle

Table 1 Membrane-bound transporters for glutamine amino acid, their characteristics, and the immune cells with upregulated expression

Immune cell	Glutamine transporters	Biological functions	Refs
NK cell	SLC1A5	Upregulation of SLC1A5 expression enhances IFN-γ production in NK cells	[117]
T cell	SLC1A5	SLC1A5 is essential for the rapid uptake of glutamine during the activation of naive T cells	[118]
	SLC1A5	T cells lacking SLC1A5 exhibit significantly reduced glutamine uptake and mTORC1 activation upon TCR engagement, leading to blocked differentiation of Th1 and Th17 cells	[119]
	SLC6A14	SLC6A14 serves as a compensatory glutamine transporter in CD8 + T cells, allowing them to maintain effector function and sustain glutamine uptake even when the primary transporter is inhibited, distinguishing them from triple-negative breast cancer cells which are sensitive to glutamine uptake inhibition	[119]
	SLC38A2	SLC38A2-mediated glutamine transport can reprogram the generation and persistence of memory T cells	[120]
B cell	SLC1A5	Inhibiting the glutamine transporter SLC1A5 resulted in decreased IgM production in B cells	[121]
DC cell	SLC38A2	SLC38A2 expressed by DCs is essential for maintaining the effector function of antigen-specific CD8 + T cells in the TME, without affecting antigen uptake or migratory capacity of DCs	[7]

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