Potential Role of Sugar Transporters in Cancer and Their Relationship with Anticancer Therapy

Table 2

Sugar transporters and their expression in cancer.

Transporter	Tissues	Roles and properties
SGLT transporters
SGLT1	Small intestine, kidney.	Intestinal absorption of glucose from meal. Renal reabsorption of glucose.
SGLT2	Kidney.	Renal absorption of glucose from glomerular filtrate.
Class I GLUT transporters
GLUT1	Erythrocytes, brain (blood-brain barrier).	Basal glucose uptake.
GLUT2	Liver, pancreatic islet cells, small intestine, kidney.	Glucose sensing in pancreatic β-cells. Trans-epithelial glucose and fructose transport. High-capacity, low-affinity glucose transporter.
GLUT3	Brain (neuronal), testis.	Glucose neural transporter.
GLUT4	Muscle, heart, adipose tissue.	Expressed in tissues with insulin-stimulated acute glucose transport. In response to insulin, it is translocated to plasma membrane.
GLUT14	Testis.
Class II GLUT transporters
GLUT5	Small intestine, testis, muscle.	Only fructose transporter.
GLUT7	Intestine, testis, prostate.
GLUT9	Liver, kidney.
GLUT11	Heart, adipose tissue, kidney, placenta, muscle.	GLUT11 has three isoforms: GLUT11a, GLUT11b, and GLUT11c, with distinct tissue distribution.
Class III GLUT transporters
GLUT6	Brain, spleen, leukocytes.
GLUT8	Brain, testis, adipocytes.
GLUT10	Heart, lung, brain, liver, skeletal muscle, pancreas, placenta, and kidney.	Mutations in GLUT10 were associated with arterial tortuosity syndrome. GLUT10 deficiency is associated with the upregulation of TGFB pathway in Loeys-Dietz syndrome.
GLUT12	Placenta, adipose tissue, small intestine and skeletal muscle.	In skeletal muscle, it is translocated to plasma membrane in response to insulin, like GLUT4.
HMIT	Brain.	Myoinositol transporter.