A mitochondrial shield from cell death

An IBM-Mount Sinai team has challenged the prevailing idea that high mitochondrial counts in tumor cells enhance cancer’s sensitivity to apoptosis-inducing therapies by showing that low numbers of the organelle actually do the trick.

The team's findings, reported last week in Nature Communications, suggest mitochondria are drivers of resistance to apoptosis and companies developing cancer therapies targeting mitochondria-related apoptosis may have to factor the organelles' numbers into their efficacy studies...