105-Nerve-to-cancer transfer of mitochondria

This paper details the mechanism by which neurons enhance the metastatic potential of cancer cells through metabolic support. Specifically, the researchers demonstrate that cancer-associated neurons transfer their mitochondria to adjacent cancer cells, thereby increasing the cancer cells' metabolic efficiency and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacities. Using a novel genetic reporter, MitoTRACER, the study confirms that these mitochondria-recipient cancer cells exhibit increased stemness and resilience against stresses like oxidative and shear stress, which are crucial for metastatic survival. Ultimately, lineage tracing experiments show that cancer cells that acquire neuronal mitochondria are selectively enriched at distant metastatic sites, providing a metabolic explanation for the observed nerve dependency in cancer progression and suggesting new therapeutic targets.

References:

• Hoover G, Gilbert S, Curley O, et al. Nerve-to-cancer transfer of mitochondria during cancer metastasis[J]. Nature, 2025: 1-11.