SLC38A5 and cancer: Moreover, given that SLC38A5-based glutamine transport leads to proton flux and intracellular alkanization, overexpression of SLC38A5 has also been hypothesized to be a strategy for pH regulation in cancer cells that regularly experience intracellular acidification due to high glycolytic flux (Bhutia and Ganapathy, 2016; Wise et al., 2008).