Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles involved in many cellular functions. Beyond their central role in metabolism, they also take a part in maintaining calcium homeostasis, cell death, immunity, and ROS production. Changes in these functions have been shown to be crucial for the adaptation and survival of cancer cells. Mitochondria, therefore, constitute a promising target for the development of novel anticancer agents. The triphenylphosphonium (TPP + ) moiety has been widely used to target molecules into mitochondria. TPP + derivatives of a variety of conventional cytostatic drugs, natural substances, metformin, antioxidants or a range of newly synthesized molecules have shown promising results against cancer cells. In this review, we discuss biochemical differences between cancer cells and normal cells with a specific focus on mitochondria, and how mitochondrially targeted molecules can be used to selectively affect mitochondrial function in normal and cancer cells. We summarize the published data on mitochondrially targeted anticancer agents and propose future research avenues.

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Mitochondria represent an attractive drug target in the treatment of many diseases. One of the most commonly used approaches to deliver therapeutics specifically into mitochondria is their conjugation to the triphenylphosphonium (TPP) moiety. While the TPP molecule is often regarded as biologically inert, there is evidence that the moiety itself has a significant impact on the activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes. We studied the impact of a subchronic exposure of C2C12 mouse myoblasts to a set of TPP derivatives. Our results show that the alkyl-TPP cause dose- and hydrophobicity-dependent alterations of mitochondrial morphology and a selective decrease in the amounts of mitochondrial inner membrane (but not outer membrane) proteins including structural subunits of the respiratory chain complexes (such as MT-CO1 of complex IV or NDUFB8 of complex I), as well as components of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter complex (MCUC). The treatment with alkyl-TPP additionally resulted in OPA1-cleavage. Both the structural and functional effects of alkyl-TPP were found to be reversible. A similar effect was observed with the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ. We further show that this effect on protein levels cannot be explained solely by a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential. We conclude that TPP derivatives negatively affect mitochondrial structure and function at least in part through their effect on selective mitochondrial membrane protein levels via a reversible controlled process.

Metabolic flux investigations of cells and tissue samples are a rapidly advancing tool in diverse research areas. Reliable methods of data normalization are crucial for an adequate interpretation of results and to avoid a misinterpretation of experiments and incorrect conclusions. The most common methods for metabolic flux data normalization are to cell number, DNA and protein. Data normalization may be affected by a variety of factors, such as density, healthy state, adherence efficiency, or proportional seeding of cells.The mussel-derived adhesive Cell-Tak is often used to immobilize poorly adherent cells. Here we demonstrate that this coating may strongly affect the fluorescent detection of DNA leading to an incorrect and highly variable normalization of metabolic flux data. Protein assays are much less affected and cell counting can virtually completely remove the effect of the coating. Cell-Tak coating also affects cell shape in a cell line-specific manner and may change cellular metabolism.Based on these observations we recommend cell counting as a gold standard normalization method for Seahorse metabolic flux measurements with protein content as a reasonable alternative.

Metabolic flux investigations of cells and tissue samples are a rapidly advancing tool in diverse research areas. Reliable methods of data normalization are crucial for an adequate interpretation of results and to avoid a misinterpretation of experiments and incorrect conclusions. The most common methods for metabolic flux data normalization are to cell number, DNA and protein. Data normalization may be affected by a variety of factors, such as density, healthy state, adherence efficiency, or proportional seeding of cells. The mussel-derived adhesive Cell Tak is often used to immobilize poorly adherent cells. Here we demonstrate that this coating strongly affects the fluorescent detection of DNA leading to an incorrect and highly variable normalization of metabolic flux data. Protein assays are much less affected and cell counting can virtually completely remove the effect of the coating. Cell-Tak coating also affects cell shape in a cell line-specific manner and may change cellular metabolism. Based on these observations we recommend cell counting as a gold standard normalization method for Seahorse metabolic flux measurements with protein content as a reasonable alternative.