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Cited by 385

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Activity Controls Metabolic and Malignant Phenotype in Cancer Cells

Open access
McFate, Thomas, Mohyeldin, Ahmed, Lu, Huasheng, Thakar, Jay, Henriques, Jeremy, Halim, Nader D., Wu, Hong, Schell, Michael J., Tsang, Tsz Mon, Teahan, Orla, Zhou, Shaoyu, Califano, Joseph A., Jeoung, Nam Ho, Harris, Robert A., Verma, Ajay·2008·Journal of Biological Chemistry

Abstract

High lactate generation and low glucose oxidation, despite normal oxygen conditions, are commonly seen in cancer cells and tumors. Historically known as the Warburg effect, this altered metabolic phenotype has long been correlated with malignant progression and poor clinical outcome. However, the mechanistic relationship between altered glucose metabolism and malignancy remains poorly understood. Here we show that inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) activity contributes to the Warburg metabolic and malignant phenotype in human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. PDC inhibition occurs via enhanced expression of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-1 (PDK-1), which results in inhibitory phosphorylation of the pyruvate dehydrogenase alpha (PDHalpha) subunit. We also demonstrate that PDC inhibition in cancer cells is associated with normoxic stabilization of the malignancy-promoting transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) by glycolytic metabolites. Knockdown of PDK-1 via short hairpin RNA lowers PDHalpha phosphorylation, restores PDC activity, reverts the Warburg metabolic phenotype, decreases normoxic HIF-1alpha expression, lowers hypoxic cell survival, decreases invasiveness, and inhibits tumor growth. PDK-1 is an HIF-1-regulated gene, and these data suggest that the buildup of glycolytic metabolites, resulting from high PDK-1 expression, may in turn promote HIF-1 activation, thus sustaining a feed-forward loop for malignant progression. In addition to providing anabolic support for cancer cells, altered fuel metabolism thus supports a malignant phenotype. Correction of metabolic abnormalities offers unique opportunities for cancer treatment and may potentially synergize with other cancer therapies.

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Metadata

Authors
McFate, T., Mohyeldin, A., Lu, H., Thakar, J., Henriques, J., Halim, N. D., Wu, H., Schell, M. J., Tsang, T. M., Teahan, O., Zhou, S., Califano, J. A., Jeoung, N. H., Harris, R. A., & Verma, A.
Venue
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2008-08
Volume
283
Issue
33
Pages
22700-22708
ISSN
0021-9258 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2058691572
Cited by
385
References
13
FWCI
5.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
hybrid

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Activity Controls Metabolic and Malignant Phenotype in Cancer Cells. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1074/jbc.m801765200
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McFate, T., Mohyeldin, A., Lu, H., Thakar, J., Henriques, J., Halim, N. D., Wu, H., Schell, M. J., Tsang, T. M., Teahan, O., Zhou, S., Califano, J. A., Jeoung, N. H., Harris, R. A., & Verma, A. (2008). Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Activity Controls Metabolic and Malignant Phenotype in Cancer Cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m801765200

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.