A “Weird” Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Oxidation as a Metabolic “Secret” of Cancer

Figure 12

Schematic representation of the “β-oxidation shuttle” in mitochondria: connection of β-oxidation to the citrate-malate shuttle and formation of a separate and independent metabolic pathway, which has its own energy efficiency, own oxygen consumption, and own influence on other metabolic pathways. The green arrows indicate the metabolic flux from fatty acids. The red arrows indicate the metabolic flux from glucose. The red blunt ends indicate the inhibition of a particular enzyme. The blue arrows indicate the malate-citrate shuttle. ACLY: ATP citrate lyase; CIC: mitochondrial citrate carrier; CTP1 and CTP2: carnitine palmitoyl transferases 1 and 2; F6P: fructose-6-phosphate/fructose-1,6-bisphosphate; G6P: glucose-6-phosphate; GAP: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate; a-KG: a-ketoglutarate; MPC: mitochondrial pyruvate carrier; NNT: NAD(P) transhydrogenase; OAA: oxaloacetate; PDK: pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase; PDH: pyruvate dehydrogenase; PC: pyruvate carboxylase; PFK1: phosphofructokinase-1; PK: pyruvate kinase; PEP: phosphoenolpyruvate; Succ: succinate.