Recent findings published in Nature illustrate a crucial mechanism by which cancer cells evade the immune response. It has been discovered that cancer cells can transfer defective mitochondria to attacking immune cells, specifically T cells, effectively dampening their metabolic capabilities. This challenges prior beliefs about mitochondrial independence within cells. The research highlights the potential for a new area of biology whereby cancer cells corrupt immune cells' functionality, thus enhancing tumor survival. Further investigation is ongoing to quantify this phenomenon's extent and repercussions for cancer treatment.
My first thought was that this sounds crazy, like science fiction. But they seem to have the data for it," says Holden Maecker, an immunologist at Stanford University.
To learn more, the authors of the latest work sampled mitochondria from a handful of people with cancer.
The team found that, in three people, both the tumour cells and TILs carried mitochondria with the same mutations, suggesting that misshapen mitochondria might be jumping from diseased to healthy cells.
Cancer cells have been found to feed their insatiable appetite for energy by stealing healthy mitochondria from immune cells called T cells.
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