Lactylation: the regulatory code of cellular life activity and a barometer of diseases

Lactylation is a novel post-translational modification of proteins, which has attracted extensive attention since its discovery. Lactylation takes lactate, a common metabolite, as its substrate and mediates the modification under the action of lactyltransferases. Although lactylation modification was initially found to undergo in histones, subsequent studies have shown that this novel modification is not limited to specific protein classes, and can undergo in both histone and non-histone proteins. Lactylation has been proved to play an important regulatory role in a variety of diseases, including tumors, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Given the tumor properties of its substrate lactate, lactylation has been most extensively studied in tumors, and as a result, we have gained a deeper understanding of the potential molecular mechanisms and regulatory roles of lactylation in tumors. In this paper, we will summarize the regulatory and functional mechanisms of lactylation, explain the cellular processes in which lactylation is involved and its association with various diseases, and look forward to the future clinical application of lactylation.