Cancer may be a kind of metabolic disease where pyruvate kinase muscle isozyme (PKM2), the key enzyme transforming glucose into energy, may be interacting with Jumonji C domain-containing dioxygenase (JMJD5) to modulate metabolic flux in cancer cells, according to research by the National Health Research Institute.
Institute president Kung Hsing-jien (龔行健) said that clinical research shows evidence that patients have a decreased chance of tumors becoming cancerous if they ingest certain kinds of glucose inhibition medication.
The research might provide a new strategy for fighting cancer, most likely the development of a new medication to interrupt the effects of the JMJD5 enzyme, to prevent carcinogenic cells from growing by leeching off glucose metabolite, Kung said.
Institute researcher Wang Hong-jun (王鴻俊) said that the scientific community first posited the hypothesis that cancer was a new form of metabolic disease in 1920, adding that it was only through much research that medical researchers have been able to track the metabolic path of carcinogenic development.
The institute just this year put out a paper on the interaction between the carcinogenic properties of the two enzymes, after researching the cancer cells from prostate cancer and breast cancer, Wang said, adding that the paper had appeared in the US’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this year.
According to the research abstract, the interaction of JMJD5 and PKM2 hinders PKM2 tetramerization and blocks the activity of pyruvate kinase — an enzyme involved in converting glucose into pyruvate — in influencing the translocation of PKM2 into the nucleus and promotes an increased rate of gene expression through the decrease of oxygen in the cellular environment.
In theory, the translocation or recurrence of carcinogenic cells in breast cancer or prostate cancer is still tied with the lack of a normal-functioning PKM2 enzyme, Wang said.
However, the research did not have enough evidence to prove whether controlling glucose levels or metabolism would translate directly to the suppression of breast cancer or prostate cancer, Wang said.
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