{"id":179186,"date":"2023-12-26T12:19:24","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T18:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/cancer-cells-steal-mitochondria-from-t-cells"},"modified":"2023-12-26T12:19:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T18:19:24","slug":"cancer-cells-steal-mitochondria-from-t-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/cancer-cells-steal-mitochondria-from-t-cells","title":{"rendered":"Cancer Cells Steal Mitochondria from T Cells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/cancer-cells-steal-mitochondria-from-t-cells2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In theory, the immune system can recognize cancer cells as foreign and destroy them. In practice, this is often difficult, particularly after a tumor has become established in the body.<\/p>\n<p>And even when <a class=\"\" data-glossary-id=\"CDR0000046356\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/Common\/PopUps\/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000046356&version=Patient&language=en\">immune cells<\/a>, especially certain killer <a class=\"\" data-glossary-id=\"CDR0000044928\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/Common\/PopUps\/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000044928&version=Patient&language=en\">T cells<\/a>, make it into a tumor, they face a hostile environment. This can include molecules that can disable T cells, low oxygen, and a lack of nutrients for energy. The end result is often a dysfunctional state known as <a class=\"\" data-glossary-id=\"CDR0000802348\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/Common\/PopUps\/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000802348&version=Patient&language=en\">T-cell exhaustion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a new study has confirmed the existence of yet another way that tumors can thwart T cells. In some tumors, a subset of cancer cells can act like a thief siphoning fuel from a car\u2019s gas tank: they drain <a class=\"\" data-glossary-id=\"CDR0000044060\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/Common\/PopUps\/popDefinition.aspx?id=CDR0000044060&version=Patient&language=en\">mitochondria <\/a>\u2014the tiny structures within cells that produce energy\u2014from T cells and use them for their own energy needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In theory, the immune system can recognize cancer cells as foreign and destroy them. In practice, this is often difficult, particularly after a tumor has become established in the body. And even when immune cells, especially certain killer T cells, make it into a tumor, they face a hostile environment. This can include molecules that [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}