Polina Shanina

• Characterisation of Primary Cilia in Prostate Cancer as a New Mechanism of Drug Resistance
• BSc Hons Biomedical Sciences

This research scholarship was focused on identifying the role of primary cilia in advanced prostate cancer cell lines (PCa) and investigating the potential reasons for resistance in cell lines (such as PC3 and LNCaps) to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in light of the differences in expression of primary cilia. Primary cilia are organelles that maintain cellular homeostasis, and their loss is usually linked to cancer progression. This investigation involved the use of LNCap, PC3, CWR-22, and PNT-2C2 cell lines, with the latter acting as a control.

The findings showed that out of the four cell lines, PC3 (androgen-insensitive) displayed a significant increase in cilia length alongside a marked decrease in cilia abundance, supporting the hypothesis of lower cilia counts being associated with more advanced forms of cancer. Conversely, CWR-22 showed a slight increase in cilia numbers, while LNCaps showed no significant difference in abundance of cilia
compared to control.

Funded by: Newcastle University Research Scholarship

Project Supervisor: Dr Adriana Buskin