BACKGROUND: Cancer development involves an “injury” to the respiratory machinery (Warburg effect) due to decreased or impaired mitochondrial function. This circumstance results in a down regulation of some of the ATPase subunits of the malignant tissue. The objective of this work was to assess and compare the relative expression of mRNA of mitochondrial ATPase subunits between samples of thyroid cancer and benign nodules.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Samples from 31 patients who had an operation for PTC at the General Hospital of Mexico were snap-frozen and stored at –70°C. Thirty-five patients who had an operation for benign tumors were also included in the study. mRNA expression levels of alpha, beta, gamma, and epsilon subunits of F1 and “c12” of subunit Fo were determined by real-time RT-PCR (by duplicate), in order to determine if abnormal expression of these genes could partially explain the Warburg effect in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC).

RESULTS: ATP5E transcript alteration (down-expression) was highly associated to PTC diagnosis OR=11.76 (95% confidence interval, 1.245–237.98; p=0.04).

CONCLUSIONS: Relative down-expression of ATP5E transcript was highly associated with PTC diagnosis. This transcript alteration may be used as a tumoral marker in papillary thyroid cancer.

Keywords: Biomarkers, Tumor - genetics, Adolescent, Carcinoma - pathology, Mitochondrial Proton-Translocating ATPases - genetics, Prospective Studies, Proteins - metabolism, RNA, Messenger - metabolism, Thyroid Neoplasms - pathology, young adult