Amazing stuff! Cancer is history (soon)!
"Cancer cells use mitochondria stolen from immune cells to escape detection and spread. Researchers found that when cancer cells take on these mitochondria in mice, it both weakens the immune cells and triggers a molecular pathway in the cancer cells that help them fly under the immune system’s radar and invade lymph nodes. This beneficial molecular pathway was activated even when researchers disrupted the mitochondria’s ability to produce the energy-carrying molecule ATP. The findings could explain how cancer cells survive in lymph nodes, which are packed with immune cells that should be able to kill them."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Cancer cells hijack mitochondria from many immune cells
• Mitochondria loss by immune cells impairs innate and adaptive anti-tumor immunity
• Fusion of hijacked and endogenous cancer cell mitochondria triggers cGAS STING activation
• cGAS-STING activation promotes lymph node metastasis through type I interferon signaling
Summary
Although the immune system is a significant barrier to tumor growth and spread, established tumors evade immune attack and frequently colonize immune populated areas such as the lymph node. The mechanisms by which cancer cells subvert the tumor-immune microenvironment to favor spread to the lymph node remain incompletely understood.
Here, we show that, as a common attribute, tumor cells hijack mitochondria from a wide array of immune cells. Mitochondria loss by immune cells decreases antigen-presentation and co-stimulatory machinery, as well as reducing the activation and cytotoxic capacity of natural killer (NK) and CD8 T cells.
In cancer cells, the exogenous mitochondria fuse with endogenous mitochondria networks, leak mtDNA into the cytosol, and stimulate cGAS/STING, activating type I interferon-mediated immune evasion programs.
Blocking mitochondrial transfer machinery—including cGAS, STING, or type I interferon—reduced cancer metastasis to the lymph node. These findings suggest that cancer cells leverage mitochondria hijacking to weaken anti-tumor immunosurveillance and use the acquired mitochondria to fuel the immunological requirements of lymph node colonization."
Cancer might evade immune defences by stealing mitochondria "Hijacking the energy-producing organelles from immune cells seems to help tumours in mice to infiltrate lymph nodes." (no public access)
Graphical abstract
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