Within mitochondria, specialized proteins work together to produce energy. Most eukaryotic cells live off of this energy–including cancerous cells, researchers have now found. In a June 29 study published in Nature, a team of scientists concludes that head and neck cancer cells fuel their journey to colonize new locations throughout the body with energy derived from modifying a key mitochondrial protein called NSUN3. The researchers say that NSUN3 is critical for generating energy in the mitochondria and that the protein’s absence confines cancerous cells to their primary tumors.
Before now, cancer cells were known to develop with the energy produced through glycolysis, despite the fact that glycolysis is an inefficient way of making energy. In this study, the researchers found that cells in a primary tumor only tilt toward glycolysis as a backup when there is a shortage of NSUN3 protein in the mitochondria, and that doing so inhibits metastasis.
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