Background: The switch from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis in proliferating cancer cells, even under aerobic\nconditions, has been shown first in 1926 by Otto Warburg. Today this phenomenon is known as the ââ?¬Å?Warburg effectââ?¬Â and\nrecognized as\na hallmark of cancer. The metabolic shift to glycolysis is associated with the alterations in signaling pathways involved\nin energy metabolism, including glucose uptake and fermentation, and regulation of mitochondrial functions.\nHexokinases (HKs), which catalyze the first step of glycolysis, have been identified to play a role in tumorigenesis of\nhuman colorectal cancer (CRC) and melanoma. However, the mechanism of action of HKs in the promotion of tumor\ngrowth remains unclear.\nResults: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of silencing of hexokinase genes (HK1, HK2, and\nHK3) in colorectal cancer (HT-29, SW 480, HCT-15, RKO, and HCT 116) and melanoma (MDA-MB-435S and SK-MEL-28) cell\nlines using short hairpin RNA (shRNA) lentiviral vectors. shRNA lentiviral plasmid vectors pLSLP-HK1, pLSLP-HK2, and\npLSLP-HK3 were constructed and then transfected separately or co-transfected into the cells. HK2 inactivation was\nassociated with increased expression of HK1 in colorectal cancer cell lines pointing to the compensation effect.\nSimultaneous attenuation of HK1 and HK2 levels led to decreased cell viability. Co-transfection with shRNA vectors against\nHK1, HK2, and HK3 mRNAs resulted in a rapid cell death via apoptosis.\nConclusions: We have demonstrated that simultaneous inactivation of HK1 and HK2 was sufficient to decrease\nproliferation and viability of melanoma and colorectal cancer cells. Our results suggest that HK1 and HK2 could be the key\ntherapeutic targets for reducing aerobic glycolysis in examined cancers.
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