Table 1.

Key metabolic enzymes or transporters whose transcriptional deregulation has been reported to alter the energetic metabolism.

Protein	Role in the energetic metabolism	Alterations reported in cancer contexts	References
GLUT1	Glucose transport through plasma membrane	Activation of isoforms 1 and 3 in mammalian tumor models. Its silencing, concomitant with LDH, reduces the tumor phenotype observed upon Notch activation in Drosophila imaginal discs	34,38
Pyruvate Kinase (PK)	Conversion of Phosphoenolpyruvate into pyruvate	Increase of a PKM2 isoform in several mammalian tumor models	39,40
Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier (MPC)	Mitochondrial transporters of pyruvate	Inhibition of isoforms 1 and 2 in mammalian tumor models. Its silencing in Drosophila leads to larval lethality when development occurs in media lacking a carbon source other than sucrose	41,42
Monocarboxylate Transporter (MCT)/Silnoon and Chaski	Transporters of lactate and pyruvate in the plasma membrane	Heightened expression of isoform 4 in mammalian tumor models	43
Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase (PDHK)	Inhibition of the Pyruvate Dehydrogenase complex	Increase in Isoform 1 in several mammalian tumor models	44,45
Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH)/Impl3	Reduction of pyruvate and lactate synthesis	Increase in LDHA isoform in several mammalian tumor models Transformation from hyperplasia to neoplasia depends on LDH activity	37,46

The table summarizes the physiological role of each of the genes in metabolism as well as the nature of the alteration in tumorigenesis.