The group of Prof. QIN Yan and the group of Prof. Yang Fuyu at Institute of Biophysics (IBP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, made a new progress in cancer bioenergetics. Mitochondria regulate cellular bioenergetics and redox states and influence multiple signaling pathways required for tumorigenesis. mtEF4 is a molecular switch in mitochondrial protein translation.

In this study, researchers determined that the mtEF4 is a critical component of tumor progression. Expression of mtEF4 was increased in patient tumor tissues. Knockout of mtEF4 induced respiratory chain complex defects and apoptosis, while its overexpression stimulated cancer development. These findings reveal that mtEF4 expression may promote tumorigenesis via an imbalance in the regulation of mitochondrial activities and subsequent variation of cellular redox. Thus, dysregulated mitochondrial translation may play a vital role in the etiology and development of diverse human cancers.

Results have been published in Cancer Research entitled "Human elongation factor 4 regulates cancer bioenergetics by acting as a mitochondrial translation switch".

QIN Yan (IBP), WEI Taotao (IBP), and LU Bin (Wenzhou Medical University) are the co-corresponding authors. ZHU Ping, LIU Yongzhang and ZHANG Fenglin from IBP are the co-first authors. This work was also supported by the foundations from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation and Key Projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Full Test：http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/78/11/2813

 
a.mtEF4 knock down cause changes in cancer bioenergetics；b.upregulated mtEF4expression in cancer tissues

Contact: Qin Yan
nstitute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing 100101, China
Email: qiny(AT)ibp.ac.cn