Cilia and Cancer

Abstract

Cilia and cancer Ju Yeon Honga,†, Keun Yeong Kwona,†, Taejoon Kwonb,c, Haejin Yoona, and Tae Joo Parka,c,* a Department of Biological Sciences, College of Information-Bio Convergence Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea, b Department of Biological Medical Engineering, College of Information-Bio Convergence Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea, c Center for Genomic Integrity, Institute for Basic Science, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea, † The authors contributed equally to this study. * Corresponding author: parktj@unist.ac.kr, ORCID: 0000-0003-3176-177X The cilium is a microtubule-based organelle that plays a pivotal role in embryonic development and maintenance of physiological functions in the human body. In addition to their function as sensors that transduce diverse extracellular signals, including growth factors, fluid flow, and physical forces, cilia are intricately involved in cell cycle regulation and preservation of DNA integrity, as their formation and resorption dynamics are tightly linked to cell cycle progression. For this reason, many studies have investigated potential relationships between cilia and tumors. The presence of primary cilia was found to either promote or inhibit diverse tumor formation, including medulloblastoma, glioblastoma, melanoma, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer. This presentation will summarize the connection between cilia and cancer formation and therapy. Also, using Xenopus laevis embryos as a model system, we discovered that mebendazole (MBZ) significantly hinders ciliary formation. Remarkably, primary cilium-bearing cancer cells exhibited heightened vulnerability to combined treatment with MBZ and conventional anticancer drugs. Our findings shed light on the specific influence of MBZ on ciliary microtubules triggering DNA damage, elucidating a previously unidentified mechanism underlying potential cilia-mediated cancer therapy.