The Warburg Effect characterizes the metabolic shift in cancer cells, prioritizing increased glucose uptake and lactate fermentation despite functional mitochondria, to fuel growth and survival (Liberti et. al., 2016). Glucose metabolism generates ATP crucial for cellular energy needs and yields lactate or CO2 as end products depending on full mitochondrial oxidation or fermentation. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to lactate, regenerating NADH to NAD+ (Alegre et al., 2015). Moreover, in tumors, increased glucose uptake leads to elevated lactate production. In conclusion, the Warburg Effect does not directly increase LDH levels, instead, LDH activity is central to the metabolic rewiring observed in cancer cells undergoing the Warburg Effect resulting in increased levels of LDH in serum and plasma.

References:

Liberti MV, Locasale JW. The Warburg Effect: How Does it Benefit Cancer Cells? Trends Biochem Sci. 2016 Mar;41(3):211-218. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2015.12.001. Epub 2016 Jan 5. Erratum in: Trends Biochem Sci. 2016 Mar;41(3):287. Erratum in: Trends Biochem Sci. 2016 Mar;41(3):287. PMID: 26778478; PMCID: PMC4783224.

Alegre, E., Sammamed, M., Fernández-Landázuri, S., Zubiri, L., & González, Á. (2015). Circulating biomarkers in malignant melanoma. In Advances in clinical chemistry (pp. 47–89). https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2014.12.002