cells Review Hedgehog Signaling and Truncated GLI1 in Cancer Daniel Doheny 1 , Sara G. Manore 1 , Grace L. Wong 1 and Hui-Wen Lo 1,2,* 1 Department of Cancer Biology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27101, USA;
[email protected] (D.D.);
[email protected] (S.G.M.);
[email protected] (G.L.W.) 2 Wake Forest Comprehensive Cancer Center, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27101, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-336-716-0695 Received: 22 August 2020; Accepted: 15 September 2020; Published: 17 September 2020 Abstract: The hedgehog (HH) signaling pathway regulates normal cell growth and differentiation. As a consequence of improper control, aberrant HH signaling results in tumorigenesis and supports aggressive phenotypes of human cancers, such as neoplastic transformation, tumor progression, metastasis, and drug resistance. Canonical activation of HH signaling occurs through binding of HH ligands to the transmembrane receptor Patched 1 (PTCH1), which derepresses the transmembrane G protein-coupled receptor Smoothened (SMO). Consequently, the glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1 (GLI1) zinc-finger transcription factors, the terminal effectors of the HH pathway, are released from suppressor of fused (SUFU)-mediated cytoplasmic sequestration, permitting nuclear translocation and activation of target genes. Aberrant activation of this pathway has been implicated in several cancer types, including medulloblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, basal cell carcinoma, glioblastoma, and cancers of lung, colon, stomach, pancreas, ovarian, and breast. Therefore, several components of the HH pathway are under investigation for targeted cancer therapy, particularly GLI1 and SMO. GLI1 transcripts are reported to undergo alternative splicing to produce truncated variants: loss-of-function GLI1DN and gain-of-function truncated GLI1 (tGLI1).