Emerging Glycolysis Targeting and Drug Discovery from Chinese Medicine in Cancer Therapy

Figure 3

Antiapoptotic and metabolic roles for mitochondrial hexokinase II (HKII). (Left panel) Specific binding of HKII to the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) promotes ATP exchanges through complexes consisting of voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) and adenine nucleotide (ANT). The effluxed ATP could directly participate the transition from glucose to glucose-6-phosphate, which accelerates the glycolytic activity. Meanwhile, HKII binding to OMM also antagonizes Bax interaction with mitochondrial contact site, which prevents apoptosis occurrence; (Right panel) HKII unbound resulted in the “close” of VDAC-ANT channel, which induces Bax integration and potential changes between outer and inner mitochondrial membrane, and finally leading to release of cytochrome C and apoptosis-inducing factors (AIF) from mitochondrion.