The Warburg effect as an adaptation of cancer cells to rapid fluctuations in energy demand.

ABSTRACT: To maintain optimal fitness, a cell must balance the risk of inadequate energy reserve for response to a potentially fatal perturbation against the long-term cost of maintaining high concentrations of ATP to meet occasional spikes in demand. Here we apply a game theoretic approach to address the dynamics of energy production and expenditure in eukaryotic cells. Conventionally, glucose metabolism is viewed as a function of oxygen concentrations in which the more efficient oxidation of glucose to CO2 and H2O produces all or nearly all ATP except under hypoxic conditions when less efficient (2 ATP/ glucose vs. about 36ATP/glucose) anaerobic metabolism of glucose to lactic acid provides an emergency backup. We propose an alternative in which energy production is governed by the complex tempora

SUBMITTER: Epstein T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5602667 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature