Turning on key enzyme blocks tumor formation
Biologists found that boosting the activity of pyruvate kinase, the enzyme seen here, can prevent tumors from growing. Unlike ordinary cells, cancer cells devote most of their energy to reproducing themselves. To do this, they must trigger alternative metabolic pathways that produce new cellular building blocks, such as DNA, carbohydrates and lipids.Chemical compounds that disrupt an enzyme critical to this metabolic diversion prevent tumors from forming in mice, according to an MIT-led study appearing online in Nature Chemical Biology on Aug. 26.Matthew Vander Heiden, senior author of the paper, and others have previously shown that cancer cells use a specific form of this enzyme, known as pyruvate kinase, which allows them to focus their energy on building new cells. The new work suggests that drugs that reverse the properties of pyruvate kinase to be more like the form found in many normal cells hold potential to treat human cancers; however, more...