‘MitoFuss’: a new link between ageing and cancer

Montserrat Romero de Pablos, Juan Pablo Muñoz Neculman and David Sebastián Muñoz (CIBER).

In earlier studies of human skeletal muscle cells, the researchers on this project established that mitofusin-2 decreases with age. Further, several findings suggest that lack of this protein causes cell metabolism to reprogram such that the cell obtains energy through other than standard biochemical mechanisms – in particular, without glucose oxidation.

“Surprisingly, this closely resembles what we observe in tumor cells,” team members explain. And there are other similarities between cancer cells and healthy cells deficient in mitofusin-2. The researchers hope to discover why this similarity arises. For example, they are looking at why mitofusin-2 deficiency alters glucose metabolism, and whether this is a whole-body process that occurs in both ageing and cancer.

The overarching goal is to bring alterations due to metabolic dysfunction and the metabolic changes observed in tumor cells within the same conceptual framework. The project’s success would establish mitofusin-2 as a potential therapeutic target for both metabolic disorders and cancer.