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.
Medical Scientist Training Program, Program in Neurosciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5439, USA.
Monique T
MT
Barakat
Matthew P
MP
Scott
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