Transfer of Mitochondrial DNA from Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Can Rescue Hormone-Therapy Cancer Cells from Dormancy

Abstract

The transfer of genomic material between mammalian cells has become a hot topic in recent research. With the collaboration of multiple research teams, it has been suggested that genetic material can be transferred between cells via extracellular vesicles (EV) from cancer-derived cell lines, and that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can be transferred between cells via intracellular pathways. With these implications in place and with the recent discoveries of their own research, Sansone et al. have taken these discoveries a step farther and hypothesized that (i) EVs can contain the full mitochondrial genome, (ii) hormone-therapy dormant cancer cells uptake mtDNA via EV as a means to exit dormancy and regain oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) function, allowing metastasis, and (iii) the mtDNA is transferred via EVs from cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) to the dormant cancer cells. With their extensive research, Sansone et al. have provided compelling evidence for these aforementioned postulations. Although there is compelling evidence for these theories, the mechanisms for these postulations are unknown and could serve as topics for future cancer research.