Pyruvate kinase

About: Pyruvate kinase is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5683 publications have been published within this topic receiving 180020 citations. The topic is also known as: ATP:pyruvate 2-O-phosphotransferase & phosphoenolpyruvate kinase.

PKM2 methylation by CARM1 activates aerobic glycolysis to promote tumorigenesis.

Abstract: Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer. Herein we discover that the key glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase M2 isoform (PKM2), but not the related isoform PKM1, is methylated by co-activator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1). PKM2 methylation reversibly shifts the balance of metabolism from oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis in breast cancer cells. Oxidative phosphorylation depends on mitochondrial calcium concentration, which becomes critical for cancer cell survival when PKM2 methylation is blocked. By interacting with and suppressing the expression of inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (InsP3Rs), methylated PKM2 inhibits the influx of calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria. Inhibiting PKM2 methylation with a competitive peptide delivered by nanoparticles perturbs the metabolic energy balance in cancer cells, leading to a decrease in cell proliferation, migration and metastasis. Collectively, the CARM1-PKM2 axis serves as a metabolic reprogramming mechanism in tumorigenesis, and inhibiting PKM2 methylation generates metabolic vulnerability to InsP3R-dependent mitochondrial functions.

The effect of temperature on catalytic and regulatory functions of pyruvate kinases of the rainbow trout and the Antarctic fish Trematomus bernacchii

Abstract: 1. The effects of temperature on the catalytic and regulatory properties of pyruvate kinases from the temperate-zone rainbow trout and the Antarctic fish Trematomus bernacchii were examined. 2. The K(m) value of pyruvate kinase for one of its two substrates, phosphoenolpyruvate, is temperature-dependent, and is lowest at temperatures that closely coincide with the habitat temperatures of the two fishes. 3. Two regulatory functions of pyruvate kinase, feedforward activation by fructose diphosphate and feedback inhibition by ATP, are temperature-independent. Enzyme-ADP interaction is also temperature-independent. 4. It is concluded that enzyme-substrate and enzyme-modulator interactions are important factors in short-term and in evolutionary adaptations by poikilotherms to changes in temperature. Though the K(m) for substrate may vary in apparently adaptive manners, the regulatory functions of an enzyme appear to be unchanged over the range of temperatures experienced by the organism in Nature.

Control of gluconeogenesis in rat liver cells. Flux control coefficients of the enzymes in the gluconeogenic pathway in the absence and presence of glucagon.

Abstract: We have used control analysis to quantify the distribution of control in the gluconeogenic pathway in liver cells from starved rats. Lactate and pyruvate were used as gluconeogenic substrates. The flux control coefficients of the various enzymes in the gluconeogenic pathway were calculated from the elasticity coefficients of the enzymes towards their substrates and products and the fluxes through the different branches in the pathway. The elasticity coefficients were either calculated from gamma/Keq. ratios (where gamma is the mass-action ratio and Keq. is the equilibrium constant) and enzyme-kinetic data or measured experimentally. It is concluded that the gluconeogenic enzyme pyruvate carboxylase and the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase play a central role in control of gluconeogenesis. If pyruvate kinase is inactive, gluconeogenic flux from lactate is largely controlled by pyruvate carboxylase. The low elasticity coefficient of pyruvate carboxylase towards its product oxaloacetate minimizes control by steps in the gluconeogenic pathway located after pyruvate carboxylase. This situation occurs when maximal gluconeogenic flux is required, i.e. in the presence of glucagon. In the absence of the hormone, when pyruvate kinase is active, control of gluconeogenesis is distributed among many steps, including pyruvate carboxylase, pyruvate kinase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase and also steps outside the classic gluconeogenic pathway such as the adenine-nucleotide translocator.

Assessment of cell damage caused by spontaneous lipid peroxidation in rabbit spermatozoa.

Abstract: Damage to the plasma membrane of rabbit epididymal spermatozoa during spontaneous lipid peroxidation was examined by means of trypan blue uptake and expression of activity of the intracellular enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase. Both the dye uptake and the expression of enzyme activity probe cell damage from lipid peroxidation as loss of integrity of the plasma membrane. A linear correlation was obtained between trypan blue staining of the cells and malondialdehyde production, a quantifiable measure of the extent of lipid peroxidation. At the point of trypan blue staining of all cells, 0.5 nmol malondialdehyde/10(8) cells was produced. This is the same amount produced at the point of complete loss of motility and superoxide dismutase activity. We have defined this as the "lipoperoxidative lethal end point." Expression of lactate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase activities increased with time of aerobic incubation. In the high Na+ medium, NTP, in which lipid peroxidation is slow, there is a linear correlation between increase in expressed enzyme activities and malondialdehyde production. But in the high K+ medium, KTP, in which lipid peroxidation is rapid, there is an initial rapid rise in expressed enzyme activity over 3 h, followed by a slower increase. Activities of rabbit sperm lactate dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase, and flagellar ATPase were unaffected by aerobic incubations for up to 48 h, double the incubation period used for the assay of enzymatic activities for the first two. The activity of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase decreased during aerobic incubation, the time course matching the loss of motility. The subcellular distribution of lactate dehydrogenase in rabbit spermatozoa was determined: 4% in the mitochondrial matrix, 10% in the plasma membrane and 85% in the cytosolic compartment.