Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42334543›Full record

ReviewAdvances in experimental medicine and biology2026

The Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex: A 90-Year-Old Enigma Shaping the Future of Structural Enzymology.

Toni K Träger, Fotis L Kyrilis, Greg Kafetzopoulos, Christian Tüting, Panagiotis L Kastritis

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Advances in experimental medicine and biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Toni K TrägerMartin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Integrative Structural Biochemistry, Biozentrum, Halle, Germany.
Fotis L KyrilisNational Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), Institute of Chemical Biology (ICB), Athens, Greece.
Greg KafetzopoulosNational Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), Institute of Chemical Biology (ICB), Athens, Greece.
Christian TütingMartin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Integrative Structural Biochemistry, Biozentrum, Halle, Germany.
Panagiotis L KastritisMartin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Integrative Structural Biochemistry, Biozentrum, Halle, Germany. panagiotis.kastritis@bct.uni-halle.de.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The ancient pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHc) performs the "link reaction" of cellular respiration-a discovery from the 1930s that was central in the award of the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine to Krebs and Lipmann. Fast forward to 2024, PDHc emerges with roles in Alzheimer's, cancer, and neurodegeneration, as well as in obesity and aging processes. Due to these recent reports, structural analysis of PDHc, a 10-megadalton enzymatic complex, comes into focus-only now this analysis begins to unveil an enormous and challenging molecular complexity. Cutting-edge techniques and methods, such as cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), cross-linking (XL) and mass spectrometry (MS), advanced molecular and biochemical analysis, and computational structural biology, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), converge to systematically probe the mechanistic details governing PDHc function. This chapter collects and updates the knowledge in PDHc structure and function and pinpoints unresolved questions, with the hope of not waiting another 90 years for their answer.

Indexed as

Pyruvate Dehydrogenase ComplexAnimalsCryoelectron MicroscopyHumansModels, MolecularProtein ConformationPyruvate Dehydrogenase ComplexAcetyl-CoACitric acid cycleEnzyme regulationGlycolysisHistone acetylationKeto acid dehydrogenase complex familyKrebs cycleMetabolic diseasesMetabolonMitochondriaMitochondrial pyruvate carrierNuclear functionPyruvate oxidation regulationRespirasomeStructural biologyTCA cycle

Identifiers

PMID42334543

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.