Turning Down the Temperature on Leukemia Stem Cells

Oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is a well-documented dependency of leukemia stem cells (LSC). In this issue of Cancer Research, Griessinger and colleagues have identified cold sensitivity as a new vulnerability of OXPHOS-dependent LSCs. Mechanistically, cold sensitive leukemic cell death is caused by membrane permeabilization due to OXPHOS-dependent differences in membrane lipid species abundance. This work sheds new light onto the contribution of OXPHOS to lipid homeostasis in LSCs and has important implications for the handling and processing of primary acute myeloid leukemia specimens. See related article by Griessinger et al., p. 2461.