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Prof. Gattinoni Highlights Breakthrough on Cancer’s Mitochondrial Boost in Science Magazine

A groundbreaking study reported in Nature and discussed in Science Magazine has revealed that neurons donate mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouse, to cancer cells, dramatically boosting tumor growth and spread. By transferring these energy-producing organelles, nerve cells effectively “supercharge” cancer cells, helping them survive, multiply, and metastasize to other parts of the body.

Please see full article here!

  • Date Published

    July 10, 2025

 

Commenting on the findings for Science, Prof. Luca Gattinoni of the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy called the work “very compelling” and emphasized the urgent need to develop drugs to block this mitochondrial transfer, which could deprive aggressive cancer cells of the energy they need to thrive.

In a powerful example of turning cancer’s own strategy against it, Prof. Gattinoni and his team at LIT are also harnessing mitochondrial transfer to enhance cancer immunotherapy by developing a platform to supercharge CD8+ T cells with healthy mitochondria so they can resist exhaustion and attack tumors more effectively, offering a promising new strategy to outsmart cancer.

Prof. Luca Gattinoni

For more information, please visit the full article in the journal “Cell”:

Jeremy G. Baldwin, Christoph Heuser-Loy, Tanmoy Saha, Roland C. Schelker, Dragana Slavkovic-Lukic, Nicholas Strieder, Inmaculada Hernandez-Lopez, Nisha Rana, Markus Barden, Fabio Mastrogiovanni, Azucena Martín-Santos, Andrea Raimondi, Philip Brohawn, Brandon W Higgs, Claudia Gebhard, Veena Kapoor, William G. Telford, Sanjivan Gautam, Maria Xydia, Philipp Beckhove, Sina Frischholz, Kilian Schober, Zacharias Kontarakis, Jacob E. Corn, Matteo Iannacone, Donato Inverso, Michael Rehli, Jessica Fioravanti, Shiladitya Sengupta, Luca Gattinoni. Intercellular nanotube-mediated mitochondrial transfer enhances T-cell metabolic fitness and antitumor efficacy. Cell, 2024. DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2024.08.029

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.08.029

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