Tail wags dog: primary cilia and tumorigenesis.
Aberrant activation of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway contributes to many forms of cancer. Primary cilia are Hh signal transduction centers. Two papers in a recent issue of Nature Medicine (Han et al., 2009; Wong et al., 2009) show that mutating cilia can increase or reduce the rates of tumorigenesis depending on how the Hh pathway is disrupted.
Barakat
Monique T
MT
Medical Scientist Training Program, Program in Neurosciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5439, USA.
Scott
Matthew P
MP
D000818:Animals; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D002923:Cilia / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D053823:Hedgehog Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D016547:Kinesins / Q000378:metabolism; D051741:Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000072086:Smoothened Receptor; D000075746:Zinc Finger Protein Gli2
C000618551:Gli2 protein, mouse; D053823:Hedgehog Proteins; C490202:Kif3a protein, mouse; D051741:Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; C491022:Smo protein, mouse; D000072086:Smoothened Receptor; D000075746:Zinc Finger Protein Gli2; D016547:Kinesins