Mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ radiosensitizes tumors by decreasing mitochondrial oxygen consumption

Hypoxic tumors are radioresistant stemming from the fact that oxygen promotes reactive oxygen species (ROS) propagation after water radiolysis and stabilizes irradiation-induced DNA damage. Therefore, an attractive strategy to radiosensitize solid tumors is to increase tumor oxygenation at the time of irradiation, ideally above a partial pressure of 10 mm-Hg at which full radiosensitization can be reached. Historically, the many attempts to increase vascular O₂ delivery have had limited efficacy, but mathematical models predicted that inhibiting cancer cell respiration would be more effective. Here, we report that mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ can radiosensitize human breast tumors in mice. This was not a class effect, as neither MitoTEMPO nor SKQ1 shared this property. At clinically relevant nanomolar concentrations, MitoQ completely abrogated the oxygen consumption of several human cancer cell lines of different origins, which was associated with a glycolytic switch. Using orthotopic breast cancer models in mice, we observed that pretreating hypoxic MDA-MB-231 tumors with MitoQ delayed tumor growth with both single dose irradiation and clinically relevant fractionated radiotherapy. Oxygenated MCF7 tumors were not radiosensitized, suggesting an oxygen enhancement effect of MitoQ. Because MitoQ already successfully passed Phase I clinical trials, our findings foster its clinical evaluation in combination with radiotherapy.