PKM-Polyclonal Antibodies

Pyruvate kinase, a glycolytic enzyme, catalyses the conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate to pyruvate. In mammals, the M1 isoform (PKM1) is expressed in most adult tissues (1). The M2 isoform (PKM2), an alternatively-spliced variant of M1, is expressed during embryonic development (1). Studies found that cancer cells exclusively express PKM2 (1-3). PKM2 is shown to be essential for aerobic glycolysis in tumors (Warburg effect) (1). When the M2 isoform is switched to the M1 isoform, aerobic glycolysis is reduced and oxidative phosphorylation is increased in cancer cells (1). These cells also show decreased tumorigenicity in mouse xenografts (1). Recent studies show that the oncogenic forms of FGFR1 directly phosphorylate Tyr105 of PKM2 and thereby inhibit the formation of active tetrameric PKM2 (4). A PKM2 mutant found in cancer cells, in which Tyr105 is replaced by phenylalanine, leads to reduced cell proliferation in hypoxia and tumor growth in xenografts in nude mice (4). These findings suggest that the phosphorylation at Tyr105 is a critical switch for the metabolism in cancer cells that promotes tumor growth (4).

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