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  • Perspective
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Targeting mitochondria metabolism for cancer therapy

Abstract

Mitochondria have a well-recognized role in the production of ATP and the intermediates needed for macromolecule biosynthesis, such as nucleotides. Mitochondria also participate in the activation of signaling pathways. Overall, accumulating evidence now suggests that mitochondrial bioenergetics, biosynthesis and signaling are required for tumorigenesis. Thus, emerging studies have begun to demonstrate that mitochondrial metabolism is potentially a fruitful arena for cancer therapy. In this Perspective, we highlight recent developments in targeting mitochondrial metabolism for the treatment of cancer.

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Figure 1: Mitochondria function as bioenergetic, biosynthetic and signaling organelles.
Figure 2: Targeting mitochondrial bioenergetic capacity.
Figure 3: Targeting mitochondrial biosynthetic production.
Figure 4: Targeting mitochondrial redox signaling and balance.
Figure 5: Targeting mitochondrial metabolism.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported US National Institutes of Health grants R01CA123067 to N.S.C. and 5T32HL076139-10 to S.E.W. We apologize to all investigators whose work could not be cited due to reference limitations.

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Correspondence to Navdeep S Chandel.

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N.S.C. has previously consulted for Agios, Astellas Pharma Inc. and Bayer Pharma AG on this topic.

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Weinberg, S., Chandel, N. Targeting mitochondria metabolism for cancer therapy. Nat Chem Biol 11, 9–15 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1712

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