The applied strategic research for the sake of cancer treatment; the discovery of puruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) activator out of existing drugs

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25870717
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Tumor biology; Pathological medical chemistry
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: TAMADA Mayumi 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 特任助教 (80528133)
• Research Collaborator: SAYA Hideyuki 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 教授 (80264282)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 癌 / 糖代謝 / pyruvate kinase M2 / 代謝変動 / 既存薬

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Recently, PKM2 has been reported to be one of the most important factors to maintain glycolic phenotype which is the unique character of cancer. Thus, the possibility of PKM2 activator as an anti-cancerous drug has attracted attention. We investigated to discover PKM2 activator, which induce the metabolic shift from aerobic glycolysis to mitochondrial respiration mainly used by normal cells, out of existing drugs.
We examined whether there was the drug which inhibits glucose consumption, lactate production, and tyrosine phosphorylation of PKM2 out of existing drugs, based on our idea that PKM2 activator may be included in the drugs which inhibit glucose consumption.We have already found some candidate drugs, and advance examination such as measurement of PKM2 enzyme activity, metabolic shift, and anti-cancerous effect.

Free Research Field

癌の代謝