Cancer cells have a sneaky way of using mitochondria—tiny power sources from immune cells—to help them spread and escape detection, according to a recent study in Cell Metabolism. This has baffled scientists for some time. They have struggled to understand how tumors can move to lymph nodes, where immune cells usually catch and destroy them.
Derick Okwan-Duodu, an immunologist from Stanford University, explored a new area called mitochondrial transfer. This is where mitochondria shift from one cell to another. In experiments with mice, Okwan-Duodu’s team found that cancer cells easily took mitochondria from different types of immune cells. They did this equally well whether they were in a lymph node or skin.
This mitochondrial “theft” seems to benefit cancer cells in two significant ways. First, it weakens the immune cells they steal from. Second, it activates a pathway in the cancer cells that might help them dodge the immune response and invade lymph nodes.
The cancer cells that absorbed the mitochondria began to express genes linked to the type I interferon pathway. This pathway plays a role in immune signaling and could assist cancer cells in evading detection. Okwan-Duodu’s research showed that if they silenced genes connected to this pathway, the cancer cells struggled to move to lymph nodes.
Cynthia Reinhart-King, a bioengineer at Rice University, described these findings as a new mechanism for how mitochondrial transfer aids cancer progression. Interestingly, the advantages for cancer cells persisted even when the mitochondria were stripped of their ability to produce ATP, the main energy carrier in cells. This suggests that the benefits stem from factors other than energy production.
As this area of research expands, it could lead to new cancer treatments. Understanding how mitochondrial transfer works might open doors for strategies to block this process, making it harder for tumors to grow and spread.
Source link
Cancer,Immunology,Metabolism,Science,Humanities and Social Sciences,multidisciplinary
