Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

CANCER IMMUNOLOGY

Cancer cells hijack T-cell mitochondria

Nature Nanotechnology volume 17, pages 3–4 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Nanotube-mediated acquisition of immune cells’ mitochondria by tumour cells is a novel mechanism for immune evasion that can be pharmacologically targeted to potentiate cancer immunotherapies.

The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a collection of warfare wisdom from ancient China that has been distilled over the centuries into short proverbs that illustrate how to implement cunning and deception in war and politics. One of the key stratagems in order to outwit opponents on the battlefield is 釜底抽薪 (to ‘Steal the firewood from under the pot’). Rather than attacking the enemy’s fighting forces, the essence of this tactic is to attack their ability to wage war by taking the fuel out of the fire. As often is the case, life imitates art. Now, writing in Nature Nanotechnology, Saha et al.1 provide evidence that cancer cells outwit the ability of immune cells to wage war on them by stealing their mitochondria, that is, the firewood that fuels the cells.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Pharmacological blockade of mitochondrial hijacking improves T-cell antitumour immunity.

References

  1. Saha, T. et al. Nat. Nanotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-021-01000-4 (2021).

  2. Bantug, G. R. et al. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 18, 19–34 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sukumar, M. et al. Cell Metab. 23, 63–76 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Spees, J. L. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 1283–1288 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Berridge, M. et al. Anal. Biochem. 552, 75–80 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Mohammadalipour, A. et al. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 8, 1519 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Burt, R. et al. Blood 134, 1415–1429 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Moschoi, R. et al. Blood 128, 253–264 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Yu, Y.-R. et al. Nat. Immunol. 21, 1540–1551 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Pilipow, K. et al. JCI Insight 3, e122299 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology, Department of Functional Immune Cell Modulation, Regensburg, Germany

    Jeremy G. Baldwin & Luca Gattinoni

  2. University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Luca Gattinoni

Authors
  1. Jeremy G. Baldwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Luca Gattinoni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luca Gattinoni.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

L.G. has consulting agreements with Lyell Immunopharma, AstraZeneca, Turnstone Biologics, Xcelcyte. L.G. is on the scientific advisory board of Poseida Therapeutics and Kiromic, and a stockholder of Poseida Therapeutics. J.G.B. declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Baldwin, J.G., Gattinoni, L. Cancer cells hijack T-cell mitochondria. Nat. Nanotechnol. 17, 3–4 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-021-01006-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-021-01006-y

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Find nanotechnology articles, nanomaterial data and patents all in one place. Visit Nano by Nature Research