BNIP3 and cancer: To investigate whether blocking BNIP3-regulated mitophagy could prevent muscle wasting in cancer cachexia, BNIP3 was knocked down in the TA muscle via electroporation of a specific shRNA construct (Figure 2A), a well-established in vivo genetic manipulation [32] previously optimized also in our laboratory for reducing the expression of atrophy-related genes in C26-bearing mice [14].