Imiquimod directly inhibits Hedgehog signalling by stimulatingadenosine receptor/protein kinase A-mediated GLI phosphorylation
F Wolff, A Loipetzberger, W Gruber, H Esterbauer, F Aberger and AM Frischauf

Abstract:
Imiquimod (IMQ) is an immune response modifier, used in the topical therapy of the frequent, hedgehog (HH)-driven skin tumour basal cell carcinoma (BCC). We provide evidence for an additional mode of action of IMQ in the therapy of BCC. IMQ modulates the activity of adenosine receptors expressed on tumour cells and effectively blocks oncogenic HH signalling directly in BCC cells by activating PKA. This new mode of action is independent of immune cells and reveals new possibilities for the therapy of smoothened-inhibitor resistant, HH-driven tumours.

The open access article can be found  here.

Reviewed by Hans Brandstetter