Mitochondrial Horizontal Transfer in Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Abstract
Cancer cells constantly interact with surrounding cells in the tumor. The communication between cancer cells and surrounding cells is often the reason behind the failure of cancer therapeutics. We seek to understand this communication in an effort to overcome these barriers. Macrophages are a component of the immune system. Their best known function is to seek and destroy foreign particles. However, in the tumor environment, macrophages have a very different role macrophages can facilitate steps of metastasis by communicating with cancer cells and helping cancer cells leave the tumor, enter the blood stream, and grow at the metastatic site. We discovered that macrophages transfer mitochondria to triple negative breast cancer cells, regulating cancer cell proliferation. We polarized macrophages to an M2-like state and found increased mitochondrial transfer to cancer cells. Furthermore, increasing and decreasing mitochondrial fragmentation in macrophages by overexpressing and inhibiting a key mitochondrial fission machinery player, DRP-1, led to increased and decreased mitochondrial transfer, respectively. We are now optimizing conditions to assess macrophage mitochondrial transfer to patient-derived cells, and are performing experiment to mechanistically understand how macrophage mitochondrial transfer leads to increased breast cancer cell proliferation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1154922
Entities
People
- Chelsea Kidwell
- Daniel Greiner
- Joseph Casalini
- Julio Fierro
- Minna Roh-johnson
Organizations
- University of Utah