The cilia are to blame for the resistance

The fight against drug resistance is one of the most important tasks in the field of cancer research. Understanding the processes that allow cancer cells to evade treatment will help create new approaches to therapy.

Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research (London) have found a direct relationship between the resistance of tumors to various therapies and the number and length of cilia located on the surface of cancer cells (cilium) – cellular organelles that pick up chemical signals. Blocking the growth of these "antennas" restores the effectiveness of treatment with drugs to which malignant cells have developed resistance.

Blocking the growth of cilia by knocking out the kif7 gene led to a loss of resistance and restoration of sensitivity to antitumor drugs from the kinase inhibitor group. In an in vitro experiment, their effectiveness doubled: 35 to 60% of previously resistant cancer cells died. The elongation of the cilia had the opposite effect.

Blocking the growth of cilia in lung cancer cells turned out to be the most effective: after exposure to the drug erlotinib, 39% of cancer cells without cilia and 72% with them survived.

In order to understand the mechanism of the effect of cilia on sensitivity to therapy, the researchers suppressed the synthesis of their characteristic signaling proteins-oncogenes – Smo, KRAS, EGFR and PDGFR. This also led to a decrease in the resistance of cancer cells to therapy.

Scientists have concluded that the role of cilia in drug resistance is largely related to important signaling molecules that are contained in malignant cells. The following studies will be devoted to a detailed study of these processes.

Article by A. D. Jenks et al. Primary Cilia Mediate Diverse Kinase Inhibitor Resistance Mechanisms in Cancer is published in the journal Cell Reports.

Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to ICR materials: Stunning cell 'antennae' could make cancer drugs work again.