Nanolive is proud to announce a new publication in the journal Theranostics from users of the Nanolive’s 3D Cell Explorer in the Laboratory of Heavy Ion Radiation Medicine of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Lanzhou, China.

Mitochondrial metabolic abnormalities have been linked to resistance to radiotherapy due to radiation cytotoxicity in cancer cells[1]. In aerobic conditions, an increased glycolysis and lactate production instead of the much more efficient oxidative phosphorylation are observed in cancer cells[2]. This change in metabolism is known as the Warburg effect[2].

Sun and colleagues have studied the radiosensitization effects induced by transplantation of mitochondria from normal human astrocytic into glioma cells. The focus of their study was to identify the mechanism of free mitochondrial transfer into host cells via a NAD⁺-CD38-cADPR-Ca²⁺-endocytosis pathway. Their results show that starvation treatment led to a decreased Warburg effect and a recuperation of aerobic respiration. Mitochondrial transplantation into glioma cells could reduce resistance to radiotherapy.

The 3D Cell Explorer was used to obtain live images of the dynamic behaviour of endocytosis during starvation treatment and of the interaction between this process and mitochondria. Nanolive imaging has proven to be a method of choice in organelle dynamics research, due to its non-invasive and phototoxicity free imaging. Their full publication is available here!

Figure: Transplantation of isolated mitochondria into U87 cell through endocytosis

[1]         C. Sun et al., “Endocytosis-mediated mitochondrial transplantation: Transferring normal human astrocytic mitochondria into glioma cells rescues aerobic respiration and enhances radiosensitivity,” Theranostics, vol. 9, p. 12, 2019.

[2]         O. Warburg, F. Wind, and E. Negelein, “THE METABOLISM OF TUMORS IN THE BODY.,” J. Gen. Physiol., vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 519–30, Mar. 1927.

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