Cytochrome oxidase C defects could be a biomarker for cancer screening. To see if the 2nd part of Warburg’s 1924 was correct (“defective mitochondrial function causing cells to be tumorigenic”), the Penn team took cell lines from the skeleton, kidney, breast and esophagus and used RNA molecules to silence the expression of select components of the mitochondrias’ cytochrome oxidase C, or CcO, a critical enzyme involved in oxidative phosphorylation. CcO uses oxygen to make water and set up a transmembrane potential that is used to synthesize ATP (energy source).
The biologists observed disrupting a single protein subunit of cytochrome oxidase C led to major changes in the mitochondria and cells themselves.”These cells showed all the characteristics of cancer cells,” Avadhani said...
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