{"title":"Cancer as a failed response to renegade mitochondria","authors":"John Hartung","doi":"10.1016/j.yexcr.2025.114721","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In 1948, before the word ‘mitochondrion’ gained common parlance in the lexicon of cell biologists, Cyril Darlington published <em>The Plasmagene Theory of the Origin of Cancer</em> without referring to mitochondria <em>per se</em>. Reconsideration of Darlington's theory is warranted today because discoveries about the extraordinary capacities of mitochondria – the organelles that house Darlington's “plasmagenes” – have grown exponentially.</div><div>If Darlington was right, if intracellular competition between mutant and wild-type mitochondria is the first cause of cancer, it may be the case that a general cure for cancer will include injection of: (A) nanoparticles carrying wild-type mitochondrial genes, and (B) copious amounts of wild-type mitochondria.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12227,"journal":{"name":"Experimental cell research","volume":"451 2","pages":"Article 114721"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Experimental cell research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014482725003210","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CELL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In 1948, before the word ‘mitochondrion’ gained common parlance in the lexicon of cell biologists, Cyril Darlington published The Plasmagene Theory of the Origin of Cancer without referring to mitochondria per se. Reconsideration of Darlington's theory is warranted today because discoveries about the extraordinary capacities of mitochondria – the organelles that house Darlington's “plasmagenes” – have grown exponentially.
If Darlington was right, if intracellular competition between mutant and wild-type mitochondria is the first cause of cancer, it may be the case that a general cure for cancer will include injection of: (A) nanoparticles carrying wild-type mitochondrial genes, and (B) copious amounts of wild-type mitochondria.
期刊介绍:
Our scope includes but is not limited to areas such as: Chromosome biology; Chromatin and epigenetics; DNA repair; Gene regulation; Nuclear import-export; RNA processing; Non-coding RNAs; Organelle biology; The cytoskeleton; Intracellular trafficking; Cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions; Cell motility and migration; Cell proliferation; Cellular differentiation; Signal transduction; Programmed cell death.