Targeting Glucose Metabolism in Patients With
Cancer
Shannon E. Elf, Emory University
Jing Chen, Emory University
Journal Title: Cancer
Volume: Volume 120, Number 6
Publisher: Wiley: 12 months | 2014-03-15, Pages 774-780
Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
Publisher DOI: 10.1002/cncr.28501
Permanent URL: https://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/prhc8
Final published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cncr.28501
Copyright information:
© 2013 American Cancer Society
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits distribution of
derivative works, distribution, public display, and publicly performance, making
multiple copies, provided the original work is properly cited. This license
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Accessed November 28, 2021 1:55 AM EST
Review Article
Targeting Glucose Metabolism in Patients With Cancer
Shannon E. Elf, PhD; and Jing Chen, PhD
Nearly a century ago, Otto Warburg made the astute observation that the metabolic properties of cancer cells differ markedly from
those of normal cells. Several decades passed before the concept of exploiting cancer cell metabolism came into clinical practice
with the advent of chemotherapy, the underlying principle of which is to target rapidly dividing cells by interfering with critical processes that are all, on some level, driven by cell metabolism. Although chemotherapy can be quite effective, success rates are highly
variable and the adverse effects associated with treatment often outweigh the benefits due to the fact that chemotherapy is indiscriminately cytotoxic against all rapidly dividing cells, cancerous or healthy. During the past several years, a more intricate understanding of cancer cell metabolism has permitted the development of targeted therapies that aim to specifically target cancer cells
and spare healthy tissue by exploiting the altered metabolism of cancer cells. The identification of new metabolic targets and the subsequent development of small-molecule inhibitors of metabolic enzymes have demonstrated the utility and promise of targeting cancer cell metabolism as an anticancer strategy. This review summarizes recent advances in the identification and characterization of
C 2013 American Cancer Society.
several metabolic enzymes as emerging anticancer targets. Cancer 2014;120:774–80. V
KEYWORDS: the Warburg effect, cancer metabolism, metabolic enzymes, small-molecule inhibitors, anticancer targets.
INTRODUCTION
The recent resurgence of interest in tumor metabolism, a concept pioneered by German physiologist Otto Warburg nearly
a century ago, has led to several discoveries concerning specific alterations to cellular metabolism in cancer cells, some of
which are requisite for malignant transformation.1,2 In a phenomenon later designated the “Warburg effect,” Warburg
observed that cancer cells produce energy primarily by glycolysis in the cytosol rather than by oxidative phosphorylation
in mitochondria as in most normal cells. Although normal cells switch to glycolysis for energy production in the absence
of oxygen, cancer cells use glycolysis even when oxygen is present (aerobic glycolysis). Leukemia cells, for example, are
highly glycolytic despite residing in the bloodstream, in which oxygen is plentiful. Warburg hypothesized that this altered
metabolism arose from mitochondrial defects that inhibited their ability to effectively oxidize glucose carbon to carbon
dioxide.3
Despite his prescient observations regarding the distinctiveness of tumor metabolism and the suggestion that such
alterations could represent targetable vulnerabilities in cancer cells, nearly 80 years passed before Warburg’s hypothesis
was revisited. Although recent discoveries have served to reinforce many of his initial postulations, the notion that the metabolic properties of cancer cells are a result of damaged mitochondria has since been refuted. Instead, it has been found
that these alterations are in fact a result of oncogene-driven metabolic reprogramming required to support cancer cell proliferation and survival. This helps to illuminate why cancer cells would “choose” glycolysis, a relatively inefficient mode of
energy production, over the much more efficient oxidative phosphorylation: glycolysis is quicker, and readily provides
energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) required by rapidly proliferating cancer cells.4,5
In addition to the expeditious production of energy, aerobic glycolysis also facilitates rapid cell division by providing
metabolic intermediates that can be shunted into divaricating pathways, in which they serve as precursors for the anabolic
biosynthesis of macromolecules. These include nucleotides, amino acids, and fatty acids, respectively, to produce RNA/
DNA, proteins, and lipids, which are necessary for rapid cell division.3-5 Moreover, glycolytic intermediates can also be
diverted into pathways that produce reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), which not only
fuels macromolecular biosynthesis of lipids but also functions as an antioxidant to quench the reactive oxygen species produced during rapid proliferation of cancer cells, which is imperative for the maintenance of cellular redox homeostasis.
Corresponding author: Jing Chen, PhD, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, 1365-C Clifton Road NE, Suite
C3002, Atlanta, GA 30322; Fax: (404) 778-4755; jchen@emory.edu
Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
DOI: 10.1002/cncr.28501, Received: August 27, 2013; Revised: October 8, 2013; Accepted: October 14, 2013, Published online December 2, 2013 in Wiley
Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)
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Metabolic Enzymes as Anticancer Targets/Elf and Chen
Traditional Approaches to Targeting
Cancer Cell Metabolism
The concept of exploiting cancer cell metabolism is one
that has been in practice for nearly 50 years, since the
advent of chemotherapy. The rapid proliferation that
characterizes cancer cells is fueled in part by metabolic
processes that serve to provide the cell what it requires to
grow and divide. The enduring principle of chemotherapy
has been to target rapidly dividing cells by interfering with
these critical processes that are all, on some level, driven
by cell metabolism.
The first use of chemotherapeutic drugs to treat cancer came in the mid-20th century, with the application of
nitrogen mustards to treat patients with advanced lymphoma. During World War I, mustard gas was used as a
chemical warfare agent by the Imperial German Army.
Among the many powerful physiological effects of mustard gas, those afflicted experienced potent hematopoietic
suppression, particularly in the leukocyte compartment. It
was later reasoned that similar compounds may be useful
in treating hematopoietic malignancies that display an
overproduction of white blood cells. Indeed, patients with
lymphoma who are treated with nitrogen mustards displayed a marked reduction in their white blood cell count
and experienced a transitory remission period.6 This
opened the door for the development of chemotherapeutic drugs to treat cancer over the next several decades.
The majority of chemotherapeutic drugs can be divided into 5 major classes, all of which function to inhibit
cell division: alkylating agents, anthracyclines, plant alkaloids, topoisomerase inhibitors, and antimetabolites.
Antimetabolite drugs were among the first effective chemotherapeutic agents to be discovered, and provide the
most direct evidence to support the usefulness of disrupting cancer cell metabolism as a treatment strategy. Just as
the name suggests, antimetabolites inhibit the use of a
metabolite needed for normal cellular metabolic functions. These compounds often masquerade as the metabolite with which they interfere.7
Methotrexate
In 1947, after the discovery that the administration of folic acid conjugates could promote leukemia cell proliferation in patients, Farber and his colleagues found that
aminopterin, a chemical analog of folic acid, was effective
in treating children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia
(ALL). To the best of our knowledge, aminopterin was
the first antimetabolite used in cancer treatment, and the
first drug shown to induce remission in patients with
ALL. Methotrexate soon replaced aminopterin as a
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March 15, 2014
chemotherapeutic agent, and is still used in treatment regimens for many cancers.8
Although unknown at the time of their first clinical
use, the molecular mechanism of folate analogues was
later elucidated. Methotrexate competitively inhibits
dihydrofolate reductase, an enzyme essential to tetrahydrofolate synthesis, by catalyzing the conversion of dihydrofolate to active tetrahydrofolate. Folic acid is needed
for the de novo synthesis of thymidine, which in turn is
required for DNA synthesis.7
5-Fluorouracil
The chemotherapeutic agent 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) has
been in clinical use for 40 years, and is used to treat a variety of malignancies including cancers of the colon, rectum, and head and neck. 5-FU primarily functions as an
inhibitor of thymidylate synthase, an enzyme that converts deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) into thymidine monophosphate (dTMP). dTMP is subsequently
phosphorylated to form thymidine triphosphate for use in
DNA replication. The depletion of dTMP by 5-FU thus
prevents DNA replication and ultimately results in cell
death.7
L-asparaginase
The use of the enzyme L-asparaginase to treat patients
with ALL represents a fairly rudimentary example of how
the distinctive metabolism of cancer cells has been
exploited for therapy. In contrast to normal hematopoietic cells, ALL cells are unable to synthesize the nonessential amino acid asparagine and thus depend on circulating
asparagine. L-asparaginase catalyzes the conversion of asparagine to aspartic acid, thereby depriving the leukemic
cell of the circulating asparagine it requires to survive,
leading to cell death.9,10 However, its systemic administration may lead to severe side effects, including pancreatitis, hepatic dysfunction, nephrotoxicity, and central
nervous system dysfunction.11
Although chemotherapeutic agents can be quite
effective, success rates are highly variable. Moreover, the
adverse effects associated with chemotherapy often outweigh the benefits. Current regimens can be highly aggressive and are associated with extremely adverse side effects
that severely affect quality of life. Because chemotherapeutic agents are indiscriminately cytotoxic, they prove to be
equally detrimental to all rapidly proliferating cells,
whether healthy or cancerous. Common side effects of
chemotherapy result from the damage incurred by rapidly
proliferating healthy cells, including alopecia due to
effects on hair follicles, myelosuppression due to effects
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on bone marrow cells, and nausea/vomiting due to effects
on the gastric mucosa. Life-threatening side effects
include vital organ toxicity and secondary neoplasms.
A New Era of Targeting Cancer Cell Metabolism
The past decade has seen tremendous advances in the
understanding of cancer cell metabolism, as well as a more
developed appreciation for its complexity. The molecular
characterization of metabolic differences between cancer
cells and normal cells has provoked exploration of the
therapeutic opportunities these differences might provide.
Drug development in this vein has sought to exploit metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer cells, with the aim of developing molecularly targeted therapies against cancer cellspecific metabolic alterations. The past several years has
witnessed validation of metabolic enzymes as emerging
anticancer targets, such as ATP citrate lyase,12 lactate dehydrogenase,13 pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase,14-16 and
glutaminase.17 Below we will focus on several new targets
including pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), phosphoglycerate
mutase 1 (PGAM1), and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)
1/2 in cancer cell metabolism (Fig. 1).
PKM2
PK is a glycolytic enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of
phosphoenolpyruvate into pyruvate while concurrently
producing ATP. The M1 isoform of PK (PKM1) is
expressed in most adult tissues, whereas the M2 isoform
(PKM2), an alternatively spliced variant of M1, is
expressed during embryonic development.18 More
recently, it has been shown that cancer cells also express
PKM2,18-20 and that PKM2 plays a key role in promoting
the Warburg effect in tumor cells.18
PKM2 can adopt 2 possible conformations: an inactive dimer and an active tetramer. Recent studies have
shown that oncogenic tyrosine kinase fibroblast growth
factor receptor kinase 1 phosphorylates PKM2 at tyrosine
105 to inhibit the formation of active tetrameric PKM2,
thereby promoting the formation of the inactive dimer.21
Moreover, PKM2 has been shown to be acetylated on lysine 305 in response to high intracellular glucose levels.
Acetylation at K305 decreases PKM2 enzyme activity and
promotes its lysosomal-dependent degradation via
chaperone-mediated autophagy.22 Together, these results
suggest that negative regulation of PKM2 activity is advantageous to cancer cells. When PKM2 is less active, glycolytic flux is decreased. This in turn allows cancer cells to
accumulate building blocks and precursors produced in
the upper glycolytic process above PKM2, and shunt
intermediates into divaricating biosynthetic pathways
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Figure 1. New targets in cancer cell metabolism are shown.
The glycolytic enzymes pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) and
phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1) as well as the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)
1/2 have been recently identified as new and promising targets for cancer therapy. PKM2 catalyzes the conversion of
phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) into pyruvate while concurrently
producing adenosine triphosphate, and has been shown to
play a key role in promoting the Warburg effect in tumor
cells. PGAM1 catalyzes the conversion of 3-phosphoglycerate
(3PG) to 2-phosphoglycerate (2PG), and is uniquely positioned at the branching point between glycolysis and anabolic biosynthesis, making it an attractive anticancer target.
PGAM1 activity is increased in many cancers, and its gene
expression is believed to be upregulated due to loss of TP53
in cancer cells, because TP53 negatively regulates the PGAM1
level. IDH catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of isocitrate, producing a-ketoglutarate (a-KG) in the citric acid
cycle. Both IDH1 and IDH2 produce nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), and both have been identified as being mutated in human cancers, namely glioma and
acute myeloid leukemia. G6-P indicates glucose 6-phosphate;
PPP, pentose phosphate pathway; F6-P, fructose 6phosphate; F1,6-BP, fructose 1,6-bisphosphate; Ac-CoA, acetyl coenzyme A.
including the pentose phosphate pathway and the serine
biosynthesis pathway, which support cancer proliferation.
This notion prompted the development of several
small-molecule PKM2 activators (Table 1). Because
PKM2 is expressed in cancer cells and not normal adult
tissue, selectively targeting PKM2 should have minimal
adverse effects on healthy cells, making it a promising
anticancer target. Current PKM2 activators, including
TEPP-46, DASA-58, and ML-265, have all been shown
to promote constitutive activity of PKM2, mimicking the
enzymatic activity of PKM1. Increased PKM2 activity
consequently results in decreased cell proliferation under
hypoxia and attenuated tumor growth in mice, likely due
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Metabolic Enzymes as Anticancer Targets/Elf and Chen
TABLE 1. Targeting Metabolic Enzymes for Cancer Therapy
Target
Agent(s)
PKM2
TEPP-46
DASA-58
ML-265
MJE3
PGMI-004A
AGI-5198
AGI-6780
PGAM1
IDH1
IDH2
Development Stage
Preclinical
Preclinical
Preclinical
Preclinical
Preclinical
Preclinical
Preclinical
(cell
(cell
(cell
(cell
(cell
(cell
(cell
line
line
line
line
line
line
line
and animal
data only)
and animal
data only)
and animal
and animal
and animal
Drug Development Platform(s)
data)
data)
data)
data)
data)
H1299 lung cancer cells
H1299 lung cancer cells
H1299 and A549 lung cancer cells
MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells
Diverse leukemia and solid tumor cells
R132H-positive glioma cells
R140Q-positive AML cells
Abbreviations: AML, acute myeloid leukemia; IDH1, isocitrate dehydrogenase 1; IDH2, isocitrate dehydrogenase 2, PGAM1, phosphoglycerate mutase 1,
PKM2, pyruvate kinase M2.
to decreased anabolic biosynthesis.23,24 To the best of
our knowledge, the extent of off-target toxicity induced
by PKM2 activators has yet to be fully elucidated, and
further studies are warranted to better understand the
potential toxicity of PKM2 activators at the wholeorganism level.
It is important to note that PKM2 has recently been
shown to have nonmetabolic functions implicit in tumorigenesis as well. In particular, various studies have demonstrated a nuclear role for PKM2 in which it serves to
directly regulate transcription of genes encoding tumorpromoting factors including Oct-4,25 hypoxia-inducible
factor 1-a (HIF-1a),26 and b-catenin.27 The nonglycolytic functions of PKM2 must therefore be accounted for
as well during the continued development of smallmolecule PKM2 activators and inhibitors.
PGAM1
PGAM1 catalyzes the conversion of 3-phosphoglycerate
(3PG) to 2-phosphoglycerate (2PG) during glycolysis.
PGAM1 is uniquely positioned at the branching point
between glycolysis and anabolic biosynthesis, making it
an attractive anticancer target. In many cancers, including
hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal cancer,28,29 and leukemia,30 PGAM1 activity is increased compared with
normal tissues. Moreover, PGAM1 gene expression is
believed to be upregulated due to loss of TP53 in cancer
cells, because TP53 negatively regulates the PGAM1
level.31-33 PGAM1 has been shown to regulate distal metabolic pathways by controlling the metabolite levels of its
substrate 3PG and product 2PG, which exert regulatory
functions on key metabolic enzymes including 6phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in the oxidative pentose
phosphate pathway and 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase in the serine biosynthesis pathway, respectively.30
Thus, the inhibition of PGAM1 not only affects glycolytic
flux in cancer cells but also compromises biosynthetic
pathways.
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March 15, 2014
There currently exist 2 small-molecule inhibitors of
PGAM1, MJE3 and PGMI-004A (Table 1). MJE3 was
found to inhibit proliferation of MDA-MB-231 breast
cancer cells, and was subsequently shown to target
PGAM1 through in situ proteome reactivity profiling.
MJE3 inhibits PGAM1 exclusively in intact cells, suggesting that the drug may be modified to its active form in
cells.34 This presents a set of limitations with regard to
determining inhibitor specificity. The small-molecule
PGAM1 inhibitor PGMI-004A was identified through
coupled PGAM1 and enolase assays, using a pure in vitro
system to overcome the limitations associated with MJE3.
PGMI-004A was shown to inhibit proliferation of diverse
cancer and leukemia cell lines, as well as primary leukemia
cells from patients, without demonstrating any significant
toxicity to normal proliferating cells or peripheral blood
and bone marrow cells isolated from healthy patients.
Moreover, PGMI-004A was shown to be effective in
attenuating tumor growth in mice with minimal offtarget toxicity at the whole-organism level.30 Together,
these results suggest that targeting PGAM1 is a promising
anticancer strategy that may produce minimal adverse
side effects in humans. However, to the best of our knowledge, the effect of PGAM1 inhibition on normal, metabolically active, postmitotic tissue such as the heart, brain,
and skeletal muscle remains to be determined, and represents a potentially sizeable obstacle to be overcome before
anti-PGAM1 therapy can be used in humans.
IDH
IDH catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of isocitrate,
producing a-ketoglutarate in the citric acid cycle. Both
IDH1 and IDH2 produce NADPH, in which the former
is localized to the cytosol and the latter to the mitochondria. Unlike PKM2 and PGAM1, IDH1 and IDH2 have
both been identified as mutated in human cancer. Largescale sequencing studies have revealed that 60% to 90% of
patients with secondary gliomas and 12% to 18% of
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patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have heterozygous mutations in IDH1 or IDH2.35,36 Mutations
affecting IDH1 and IDH2 confer neomorphic activity to
the enzyme, wherein isocitrate is converted to
2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) instead of a-ketoglutarate.
It has been reported that 2-HG increased 100-fold in
patients with gliomas and AML with IDH mutations,
suggesting it could serve as a clinical biomarker.37,38
Subsequent studies have identified 2-HG as an oncometabolite, capable of competitively inhibiting aketoglutarate–dependent dioxygenases, including histone and DNA demethylases, leading to genome-wide
hypermethylation and ultimately a block in cellular differentiation.39-42
The identification of IDH mutations and glioma
and AML followed by the discovery of 2-HG as an oncometabolite quickly prompted the development of IDH
mutant inhibitors (Table 1). Currently, 2 IDH mutant
inhibitors have been developed: AGI-5198, which selectively inhibits IDH1-R132H,43 and AGI-6780, which
selectively inhibits IDH2-R140Q.44 Both inhibitors promote cellular differentiation and impair IDH mutant but
not IDH wild-type cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in
vivo (AGI-5198 in glioma cells and AGI-6780 in leukemia cells).
Future Directions and Remaining Obstacles
In addition to identifying new targets for monotherapy,
combination therapies targeting complementary metabolic pathways may result in the enhanced or synergistic
inhibition of cancer cell viability. For example, cancer
cells rely primarily on glycolysis for ATP production, but
inhibiting glycolysis would in theory drive cells toward
oxidative phosphorylation as an ATP source. Targeting
both glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation would
likely lead to the severe depletion of intracellular ATP levels and, consequently, cell death. This concept has been
explored in a prostate cancer model using the glycolytic
inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose and the oxidative phosphorylation inhibitor metformin. It was shown that prostate
cancer cells displayed significant sensitivity to this combination, whereas normal prostate cells were only moderately affected.45
An alternative strategy involves the combined inhibition of distinct biosynthetic pathways. In cancer cells,
glucose and glutamine serve as primary carbon sources for
ATP production and biosynthesis.46 Glutamine has
recently been shown to be crucial for de novo lipogenesis
in cells under hypoxia. Normally, precursors for fatty acid
synthesis are generated from glucose-derived pyruvate
778
through the oxygen-dependent tricarboxylic acid cycle.
However, proliferating cells undergoing aerobic glycolysis
and those grown under hypoxic conditions use reductive
carboxylation of glutamine-derived a-ketoglutarate to
synthesize lipid precursors, with the latter relying almost
exclusively on this pathway for de novo lipogenesis.47 Inhibition of this pathway would thus disrupt de novo lipid
biosynthesis in hypoxic tumor cells. Therefore, combined
inhibition of the reductive glutamine pathway together
with inhibitors of glycolytic flux would block at least 2
different biosynthetic pathways from 2 different carbon
sources, which may in turn lead to enhanced or synergistic
inhibition of cancer cell viability, particularly under
hypoxia.
The major outstanding concern associated with targeting cancer cell metabolism lies in the fact that all cells
use the same life-sustaining metabolic networks, and the
disruption of any of these metabolic processes has the
potential to adversely affect cancer cells and normal cells
alike. The majority of metabolic enzymes implicated in
the pathogenesis of cancer are not mutated, and are
expressed both in transformed cells and normal cells
throughout the body. This presents a considerable set of
challenges with regard to achieving specificity in targeting
cancer cells versus normal cells. However, the altered metabolism in cancer cells does provide a window for therapeutic intervention. Although most metabolic enzymes
are not mutated in cancer, there is increasing evidence to
suggest that many are aberrantly regulated by oncogenes,
which can in turn create addictions to specific metabolic
pathways.10 Dissecting how oncogenes drive metabolic
enzyme activity will certainly provide insight into potential therapeutic strategies that exploit the altered metabolism in cancer cells. For example, several metabolic
enzymes have been shown to be regulated by posttranslational modifications in cancer cells but not normal cells.
Oncogenic tyrosine kinase signaling has been well documented to regulate the activity and function of several
metabolic enzymes, including PKM2,21 lactate dehydrogenase-A,48 pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1,49 and
PGAM1.50 This has provided a great deal of insight into
how oncogene addiction can in turn regulate cellular metabolism, thereby providing an important distinction
between metabolic regulation in cancer cells versus normal cells.
Drug combinations also represent an important avenue to be explored with regard to targeting cancer cells
and sparing normal cells. Metabolic reprogamming in
cancer cells renders them more reliant on certain metabolic pathways, and thus potentially more sensitive to
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March 15, 2014
Metabolic Enzymes as Anticancer Targets/Elf and Chen
metabolic inhibitors compared with normal cells. Drug
combinations would likely permit reduced drug doses,
which may limit the effect metabolic enzyme inhibitors
would have on normal, metabolically active cells.
FUNDING SUPPORT
No specific funding was disclosed.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES
The authors made no disclosures.
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