Scientists Say They’ve Discovered How Cancer Hijacks and Corrupts Immune Cells
Cancers are sneaky infiltrators highly adept at cellular warfare. As they expand, the malignant cells chip away at the body’s immune defenses.
How cancer cells learn to dodge immune attacks has puzzled scientists for decades. A study in Nature this week has a surprising answer: They steal healthy mitochondria—the cell’s energy powerhouses—from the immune cells that hunt them down. In turn, cancers pump their own damaged mitochondria into healthy immune cells, gradually destroying them from the inside.
Scientists have always assumed mitochondria are produced inside cells and live out their lives there. The new findings challenge this dogma, suggesting mitochondria are mobile—at least in cancers and the tumor-infiltrating immune cells working to fight them off.
Analyzing both types of cells from three cancer patients, the Japanese team found that cancer-fighting immune cells poisoned with damaged mitochondria eventually lose their ability to resist. Without a healthy energy source, the cells languish in a state called senescence, where they can no longer function or divide.
