Meningioma cells express primary cilia but do not transduce ciliary Hedgehog signals

Abstract

Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumors, but treatment options for meningioma patients are limited due to incomplete understanding of tumor biology. A small percentage of meningiomas harbor somatic variants in the Hedgehog pathway, a conserved gene expression program that is essential for development and adult stem cell homeostasis. Hedgehog signals are transduced through primary cilia, and misactivation of the Hedgehog pathway is known to underlie cancer. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of Hedgehog signaling in meningioma are unknown. Here, we investigate mechanisms of ciliary Hedgehog signaling in meningioma using tissue microarrays containing 154 human meningioma samples, NanoString transcriptional profiling, primary meningioma cells, pharmacology, and CRISPR interference. Our results reveal that meningiomas of all grades can express primary cilia, but that cilia are less prevalent among anaplastic tumors. Moreover, we find that expression of Smoothened alleles that are oncogenic in other contexts fail to activate the Hedgehog transcriptional program or promote proliferation in primary meningioma cells. These data reveal that meningiomas can express the subcellular structure necessary for canonical Hedgehog signaling, but suggest that they do not transduce ciliary Hedgehog signals.