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Cancer Cell Growth Linked to Mitochondrial Process

Potential new anti-cancer therapy aims to halt cancer cell growth by knocking out a key mitochondrial protein.

University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (Pennsylvania, USA)) researchers have uncovered a technique to halt the growth of cancer cells, a discovery that led them to a potential new anti-cancer therapy.  All cells have a network of mitochondria, which are tiny structures inside cells that are essential for energy production and metabolism. Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) helps mitochondria undergo fission, a process by which they split themselves into two new mitochondria.  When deprived of a this key protein, some cancer cells are unable to properly divide.  The researchers then identified compound called Mdivi-1 that makes cancer cells behave much the way they do when deficient in Drp-1. When used in combination with cisplatin, a drug already used to treat many solid cancers, rapid cell death can be induced in a wide range of cancer cells. This means that Mdivi-1 makes cisplatin work better.  Mdivi-1 is being tested in cancer cells in a laboratory setting. Writing that: “dysfunctional mitochondrial fission directly induces genome instability by replication stress, which then initiates DNA damage response,” the study authors submit that: “ Our findings provide a novel mechanism that contributes to the cellular dysfunction and diseases associated with altered mitochondrial dynamics.”

Qian W, Choi S, Gibson GA, Watkins SC, Bakkenist CJ, Van Houten B. “Mitochondrial hyperfusion induced by loss of fission protein Drp1 causes ATM-dependent G2/M arrest and aneuploidy through DNA replication stress.”  J Cell Sci. 2012 Nov 23.

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