Pyruvate kinase muscle type (PKM) is a key enzyme in glycolysis and is a mediator of the Warburg effect in tumors. The association of PKM with survival of cancer patients is controversial. This study investigated the associations of the alternatively spliced transcripts of PKM with cancer patients' survival outcomes and explained the conflicts in previous studies. The article has recently been published in the journal Cancers.

Researchers discovered three poorly studied alternatively spliced PKM transcripts that exhibited opposite prognostic indications in different human cancers based on integrative systems analysis. Their protein products were detected and their potential biological functions based on in-vitro experiments explored. Analysis demonstrated that alternatively spliced transcripts of not only PKM but also other genes should be considered in cancer studies, since it may enable the discovery and targeting of the right protein product for development of the efficient treatment strategies.

Link to article