Reprogrammed mitochondria: a central hub of cancer cell metabolism

Mitochondria represent the metabolic hub of normal cells and play this role also in cancer but with different functional purposes. While cells in differentiated tissues have the prerogative of maintaining basal metabolism and support the biosynthesis of specialized products, cancer cells have to rewire the metabolic constraints imposed by the differentiation process. They need to balance the bioenergetic supply with the anabolic requirements that entail the intense proliferation rate, including nucleotide and membrane lipid biosynthesis. For this aim, mitochondrial metabolism is reprogrammed following the activation of specific oncogenic pathways or due to specific mutations of mitochondrial proteins. The main process leading to mitochondrial metabolic rewiring is the alteration of the tricarboxylic acid cycle favoring the appropriate orchestration of anaplerotic and cataplerotic reactions. According to the tumor type or the microenvironmental conditions, mitochondria may decouple glucose catabolism from mitochondrial oxidation in favor of glutaminolysis or disable oxidative phosphorylation for avoiding harmful production of free radicals. These and other metabolic settings can be also determined by the neo-production of oncometabolites that are not specific for the tissue of origin or the accumulation of metabolic intermediates able to boost pro-proliferative metabolism also impacting epigenetic/transcriptional programs. The full characterization of tumor-specific mitochondrial signatures may provide the identification of new biomarkers and therapeutic opportunities based on metabolic approaches.