Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have linked resistance to treatment for a deadly form of kidney cancer to low mitochondrial content in the cell. When the researchers increased the mitochondrial content with an inhibitor, the cancer cells responded to the treatment. Their findings, which are published in Nature Metabolism, offer hope for more targeted cancer drugs.
Mitochondria produce energy for the cell and require oxygen to do so. As such, they are the most oxygen-demanding component of the cell. But how mitochondria adapt in a low-oxygen environment and are linked to cancer therapy resistance has remained unknown.
