Pr. Neuzil's talk to prerequisite for tumor initiation

During the 6th World Congress on Targeting Mitochondria, Pr. Neuzil will present the recent studies related to the acquisition of mitochondrial DNA by cancer cells devoid of mitochondrial genome.

According to him, "we have recently shown that cancer cells devoid of mitochondrial (mt) DNA form syngeneic tumours with a delay, and the tumour cells contain the host mtDNA. Here, we studied what happens during the lag phase before a tumour starts to grow. We show that several days after grafting, tumour cells start to acquire mtDNA from host cells, and its level increases until the tumour appears and starts to progress. This is accompanied by mtDNA replication and transcription, which promotes retrograde signaling to the nucleus, assembly of mitochondrial complexes and recovery of respiration. We conclude that cancer cells devoid of mtDNA ought to recover oxidative phosphorylation to a threshold level, which is a prerequisite for the cells to initiate tumour formation and growth."

If you are interested to know more about the results of this study, don't hesitate to join Targeting Mitochondria World Congress 2015.

For more information: www.targeting-mitochondria.com