Systematic Review of Mitochondrial Genome Alterations in Cancer Patients: Insights from mtDNA Mutations and Their Implications for Disease Progression and Therapeutics

Abstract

Author(s): Mirza Mudassir Husain1*, Shaik Sarfaraz Nawaz1, Sridhar Baratam1, Prabhaker Yadav2, Saima Zafer

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations have been shown in the past few years to be important in the study of many cancers. However, while those mutations led to mitochondrial dysfunction and changed energy metabolism, they also increased tumor growth and resistance to therapy. Using this systematic review, the types and consequences of mtDNA mutations in cancer are further explored and reviewed to assess their role in cancer pathology and therapeutic response. In this review, we synthesize data from several studies to indicate that the mutational alterations in mtDNA induce tumor growth, contribute to cancer metastasis, and are responsible for treatment resistance to cancer metastasis. We review the potential utility of mtDNA as an early cancer biomarker and the exploitation of mitochondrial dysfunction as a therapeutic strategy. These results support further study of how mitochondrial genome mutations contribute to cancer and new mitochondrial-targeted therapeutics.

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