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E. Shyam P. Reddy: How cancer ‘poisons’ the immune system

E. Shyam P. Reddy/LinkedIn

Feb 4, 2025, 23:30

E. Shyam P. Reddy: How cancer ‘poisons’ the immune system

E. Shyam P. Reddy, Professor and Director of Cancer Biology Program, Department of OB/GYN at Morehouse School of Medicine, shared on LinkedIn:

“An infographic showing a T cell (right) attacking a cancer cell (left). The cancer cell fights back by sending defective mitochondria in an extracellular ‘parcel’ called a vesicle, which the T cell takes in. The defective organelles are coated in a protein called USP30, which prevents the T cells from breaking the organelles down.

At the same time, the cancer cell steals healthy mitochondria from the T cell through a passage it can make between them called a tunnelling nanotube.

Cancer cells disrupt the energy production of T cells by loading them up with defective mitochondria and pinching their healthy mitochondria. (Graphic from Nature News & Views | 7 min read, Nature paywall)

How cancer ‘poisons’ the immune system

Cancer cells can sabotage immune cells that try to attack them by filling them with defective mitochondria, the organelles that cells rely on to make energy. In samples from three people with cancer, researchers noticed that mitochondria in both the tumour cells and immune cells called tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) shared the same mutations.

When they grew cancer cells with fluorescent-tagged mitochondria alongside TILs, the TILs had taken on some faulty mitochondria after only 24 hours. By 15 days, their native mitochondria had been replaced almost entirely. Tainted TILs were less able to divide and more likely to commit cell ‘suicide’.”