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Mitochondrial Changes in Cancer

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Book cover Pharmacology of Mitochondria

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 240))

Abstract

Mitochondrial structural and functional integrity defines the health of a cell by regulating cellular metabolism. Thus, mitochondria play an important role in both cell proliferation and cell death. Cancer cells are metabolically altered compared to normal cells for their ability to survive better and proliferate faster. Resistance to apoptosis is an important characteristic of cancer cells and given the contribution of mitochondria to apoptosis, it is imperative that mitochondria could behave differently in a tumor situation. The other feature associated with cancer cells is the Warburg effect, which engages a shift in metabolism. Although the Warburg effect often occurs in conjunction with dysfunctional mitochondria, the relationship between mitochondria, the Warburg effect, and cancer cell metabolism is not clearly decoded. Other than these changes, several mitochondrial gene mutations occur in cancer cells, mitochondrial biogenesis is affected and mitochondria see structural and functional variations. In cancer pharmacology, targeting mitochondria and mitochondria associated signaling pathways to reduce tumor proliferation is a growing field of interest. This chapter summarizes various changes in mitochondria in relevance to cancer, behavior of mitochondria during tumorigenesis, and the progress on using mitochondria as a therapeutic target for cancer.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Drs. Harpreet Singh and James Barrett (Drexel University College of Medicine) for helpful discussions, and Dr. Frances Munoz and Kajol Shah for proof reading of the book chapter. The work was supported by a CURE grant.

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  1. Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 19102, USA

    Shubha Gururaja Rao

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  1. Shubha Gururaja Rao
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Correspondence to Shubha Gururaja Rao .

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  1. Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Harpreet Singh

  2. Department of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Shey-Shing Sheu

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Gururaja Rao, S. (2016). Mitochondrial Changes in Cancer. In: Singh, H., Sheu, SS. (eds) Pharmacology of Mitochondria. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 240. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/164_2016_40

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