Pyruvate kinase M2 at a glance.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Yang W
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4446733 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Reprogrammed metabolism is a key feature of cancer cells. The pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) isoform, which is commonly upregulated in many human cancers, has been recently shown to play a crucial role in metabolism reprogramming, gene transcription and cell cycle progression. In this Cell Science at a glance article and accompanying poster, we provide a brief overview of recent advances in understanding the mechanisms underlying the regulation of PKM2 expression, enzymatic activity, metabolic functi ...[more]
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Project description:The M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) is highly expressed in most cancer cells, and has been studied extensively as a driver of oncogenic metabolism. In contrast, the role of PKM2 in nontransformed cells is little studied, and nearly nothing is known of its role, if any, in quiescent cells. We show here that endothelial cells express PKM2 almost exclusively over PKM1. In proliferating endothelial cells, PKM2 is required to suppress p53 and maintain cell cycle progression. In sharp contrast, PKM2 has a strikingly different role in quiescent endothelial cells, where inhibition of PKM2 leads to degeneration of tight junctions and barrier function. Mechanistically, PKM2 regulates barrier function independently of its canonical activity as a pyruvate kinase. Instead, PKM2 suppresses NF-kB and its downstream target, the vascular permeability factor angiopoietin 2. As a consequence, loss of endothelial cell PKM2 in vivo predisposes mice to VEGF-induced vascular leak, and to severe bacteremia and death in response to sepsis. Together, these data demonstrate new roles of PKM2 in quiescent cells, and highlight the need for caution in developing cancer therapies that target PKM2.
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Project description:Glycolysis, a central metabolic pathway, harbors evolutionary conserved enzymes that modulate and potentially shift the cellular metabolism on requirement. Pyruvate kinase, which catalyzes the last but rate-limiting step of glycolysis, is expressed in four isozymic forms, depending on the tissue requirement. M2 isoform (PKM2) is exclusively expressed in embryonic and adult dividing/tumor cells. This tetrameric allosterically regulated isoform is intrinsically designed to downregulate its activity by subunit dissociation (into dimer), which results in partial inhibition of glycolysis at the last step. This accumulates all upstream glycolytic intermediates as an anabolic feed for synthesis of lipids and nucleic acids, whereas reassociation of PKM2 into active tetramer replenishes the normal catabolism as a feedback after cell division. In addition, involvement of this enzyme in a variety of pathways, protein-protein interactions, and nuclear transport suggests its potential to perform multiple nonglycolytic functions with diverse implications, although multidimensional role of this protein is as yet not fully explored. This review aims to provide an overview of the involvement of PKM2 in various physiological pathways with possible functional implications.
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Project description:A common feature of tumors arising from diverse tissue types is a reliance on aerobic glycolysis for glucose metabolism. This metabolic difference between cancer cells and normal cells could be exploited for therapeutic benefit in patients. Cancer cells universally express the M2 isoform of the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase (PKM2), and previous work has demonstrated that PKM2 expression is necessary for aerobic glycolysis and cell proliferation in vivo. Because most normal tissues express an isoform of pyruvate kinase other than PKM2, selective targeting of PKM2 provides an opportunity to target cell metabolism for cancer therapy. PKM2 has an identical catalytic site as the related M1 splice variant (PKM1). However, isoform selective inhibition is possible as PKM2 contains a unique region for allosteric regulation. We have screened a library of greater than 1,00,000 small molecules to identify such inhibitors. The inhibitors identified for PKM2 fell primarily into three distinct structural classes. The most potent PKM2 inhibitor resulted in decreased glycolysis and increased cell death following loss of growth factor signaling. At least part of this effect was due to on-target PKM2 inhibition as less cell death was observed in cells engineered to express PKM1. These data suggest that isoform selective inhibition of PKM2 with small molecules is feasible and support the hypothesis that inhibition of glucose metabolism in cancer cells is a viable strategy to treat human malignancy.
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Project description:Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) is a glycolytic enzyme that is expressed in cancer cells. Its role in tumor metabolism is not definitively established, but investigators have suggested that regulation of PKM2 activity can cause accumulation of glycolytic intermediates and increase flux through the pentose phosphate pathway. Recent evidence suggests that PKM2 also may have non-metabolic functions, including as a transcriptional co-activator in gene regulation. We reported previously that PKM2 is abundant in photoreceptor cells in mouse retinas. In the present study, we conditionally deleted PKM2 (rod-cre PKM2-KO) in rod photoreceptors and found that the absence of PKM2 causes increased expression of PKM1 in rods. Analysis of metabolic flux from U-13C glucose shows that rod-cre PKM2-KO retinas accumulate glycolytic intermediates, consistent with an overall reduction in the amount of pyruvate kinase activity. Rod-cre PKM2-KO mice also have an increased NADPH availability could favor lipid synthesis, but we found no difference in phospholipid synthesis between rod-cre PKM2 KO and PKM2-positive controls. As rod-cre PKM2-KO mice aged, we observed a significant loss of rod function, reduced thickness of the photoreceptor outer segment layer, and reduced expression of photoreceptor proteins, including PDE6β. The rod-cre PKM2-KO retinas showed greater TUNEL staining than wild-type retinas, indicating a slow retinal degeneration. In vitro analysis showed that PKM2 can regulate transcriptional activity from the PDE6β promoter in vitro. Our findings indicate that both the metabolic and transcriptional regulatory functions of PKM2 may contribute to photoreceptor structure, function, and viability.
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