MYC and neoplasm: Glutamine-deprivation induced apoptosis of tumor cells and MYC-transformed cells can be rescued by addition of exogenous alpha-ketoglutarate (α-KG) to the cells, suggesting that the anaplerotic flux of glutamine into the Krebs cycle is a critical survival mechanism (DeBerardinis et al., 2007; Haikala et al., 2016).