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 understa...

Pyruvate kinase (PK) is the enzyme responsible for catalyzing the last step of glycolysis. Of the four PK isoforms expressed in mammalian cells, PKM2 has generated the most interest due to its impact on changes in cellular metabolism observed in cancer as well as in activated immune cells. As our understanding of dysregulated metabolism in cancer develops, and in light of the growing field of i...

Tumour cells secrete exosomes that are involved in the remodelling of the tumour-stromal environment and promoting malignancy. The mechanisms governing tumour exosome release, however, remain incompletely understood. Here we show that tumour cell exosomes secretion is controlled by pyruvate kinase type M2 (PKM2), which is upregulated and phosphorylated in tumours. During exosome secretion, phos...

Inactivation of the M2 form of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) in cancer cells is associated with increased tumorigenicity. To test the hypothesis that tumor growth may be inhibited through the PKM2 pathway, we generated a series of small-molecule PKM2 activators. The compounds exhibited low nanomolar activity in both biochemical and cell-based PKM2 activity assays. These compounds did not affect the gr...

Aerobic glycolysis is one of the most important common characteristics in both cancer cells and stem cells. Metabolism switch has been discovered as an important early event in the process of reprogramming somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). As a rate limiting kinase in glycolysis, Pkm2 has been reported playing critical roles in many tumors, yet its role in stem cells and ...

BACKGROUND Accumulating researches have shown that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) contributes to tumor metastasis. Leptin, a key adipokine secreted from adipocytes, shapes the tumor microenvironment, potentiates the migration of breast cancer cells and angiogenesis, and is also involved in EMT. However, the potential mechanism remains unknown. This study aims to explore the effect of l...

Macrophages activated by the TLR4 agonist LPS undergo dramatic changes in their metabolic activity. We here show that LPS induces expression of the key metabolic regulator Pyruvate Kinase M2 (PKM2). Activation of PKM2 using two well-characterized small molecules, DASA-58 and TEPP-46, inhibited LPS-induced Hif-1α and IL-1β, as well as the expression of a range of other Hif-1α-dependent genes. Ac...

The Warburg effect describes a pro-oncogenic metabolism switch such that cancer cells take up more glucose than normal tissue and favor incomplete oxidation of glucose even in the presence of oxygen. To better understand how tyrosine kinase signaling, which is commonly increased in tumors, regulates the Warburg effect, we performed phosphoproteomic studies. We found that oncogenic forms of fibr...

Increasing evidences indicate that shikonin can suppress the tumor growth. However, the mechanisms remain elusive. In the present study, we investigated the effects and mechanisms of shikonin against esophageal cancer. The expression of hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) and pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) in esophageal cancer tissues and cells was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. ...

Sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock are the main cause of mortality in non-cardiac intensive care units. Immunometabolism has been linked to sepsis; however, the precise mechanism by which metabolic reprogramming regulates the inflammatory response is unclear. Here we show that aerobic glycolysis contributes to sepsis by modulating inflammasome activation in macrophages. PKM2-mediated glycol...