Cancer cells steal mitochondria from nerve cells to fuel their spread

The cancer cells fly parts generating energy of nerve cells to supply their spread to remote sites, a discovery that could improve treatments against the deadliest tumors.

“This is the first time that the mitochondrial exchange has been demonstrated from nerves to cancer cells,” said Elizabeth MEAGEKY at the Roswell Park understanding Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, which has not been involved in research. “This is a next major step in cancer neuroscience, an exploding area.”

We already knew that nerve cells, or neurons, inside and surrounding tumors produce proteins and electrical signals that help cancer develop and spread. “Cancers with higher nervous density are associated with a lower prognosis,” said Simon Grelet at the University of Southern Alabama.

Previous studies have also shown that brain cancer cells can acquire mitochondria – energy -generating structures – from non -neuronal brain cells. But we do not know if the tumor cells could take mitochondria of nerve cells, explains Grelet.

To discover it, he and his colleagues from cancer cells of the genetically modified breast of mice to contain a red fluorescent molecule and mix them with nerve cells of mouse, containing mitochondria marked with a green pigment, in a laboratory dish. By imagining the cells, they found that cancer cells stole mitochondria of nerve cells in a few hours.

“The cancer cells lengthen their membrane so that they fly, siphon, the mitochondria of the neurons,” explains Grelet. “It is like a train of mitochondria that goes through a very small structure, entering the cancer cell at the same time,” he says.

To see if this happens in the body, the researchers have injected cancer cells from the red breast into female mouse nipples to form tumors. They also genetically designed the nerves around tumors to transport green mitochondria. About a month later, 2% of cancer cells in these tumors had acquired mitochondria of neurons.

On the other hand, 14% of tumor cells that had spread to the brain transported nerve derived mitochondria – which suggests that cancer cells with nervous derivative mitochondria were much better to spread than those that are not. Other experiments suggest that this is due to the fact that cells with stolen mitochondria are better to harden the physical and chemical stresses they encounter in the blood circulation.

“There are a lot, a lot of obstacles for a cancer cell that tries to spread,” says Messkyky. “They have to get out of the initial tumor, to be done through barriers of blood vessels, get out of blood, then get enough oxygen and nutrients on the secondary site – most of them do not do it,” she said. “The flight of mitochondria seems to allow cancer cells to better support this obstacle course,” she says.

To explore if this happens in people, the researchers have analyzed the samples of eight women with breast cancer who had spread to distant sites in their bodies. They found that the tumor cells from other parts of the body had 17% more mitochondria, on average, compared to those of the breast, which suggests that the process occurs in patients, explains Grelet.

In addition, the team analyzed a sample of human prostate tumor and found that cancer cells closer to the nerves contained much more mitochondria than those further. “We believe it would be a universal mechanism that all kinds of tumors will make,” said Gustavo Ayala, member of the team, from the team member to the University of Texas Health Sciences in Houston.

The results suggest that blocking mitochondrial transfer could reduce the spread of the deadliest tumors. “I think it will be possible, at least in certain types of tumors,” says Messéky. Ayala says that researchers plan to develop drugs that can do so.