{"doi":"10.3390/ijms22116161","title":"Inhibition of Tunneling Nanotubes between Cancer Cell and the Endothelium Alters the Metastatic Phenotype","abstract":"The interaction of tumor cells with blood vessels is one of the key steps during cancer metastasis. Metastatic cancer cells exhibit phenotypic state changes during this interaction: (1) they form tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) with endothelial cells, which act as a conduit for intercellular communication; and (2) metastatic cancer cells change in order to acquire an elongated phenotype, instead of the classical cellular aggregates or mammosphere-like structures, which it forms in three-dimensional cultures. Here, we demonstrate mechanistically that a siRNA-based knockdown of the exocyst complex protein Sec3 inhibits TNT formation. Furthermore, a set of pharmacological inhibitors for Rho GTPase-exocyst complex-mediated cytoskeletal remodeling is introduced, which inhibits TNT formation, and induces the reversal of the more invasive phenotype of cancer cell (spindle-like) into a less invasive phenotype (cellular aggregates or mammosphere). Our results offer mechanistic insights into this nanoscale communication and shift of phenotypic state during cancer-endothelial interactions.","journal":"International Journal of Molecular Sciences","year":2021,"id":176409,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":21,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9551,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":401613,"name":"Tanmoy Saha","orcid":"0000-0003-3408-4188","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":287573,"name":"Shiladitya Sengupta","orcid":"0000-0002-8065-5052","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":287574,"name":"Hae Lin Jang","orcid":"0000-0003-3923-9732","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":401612,"name":"Chinmayee Dash","orcid":"0000-0002-2677-603X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":49,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:47:23.605867Z","pmid":"34200503","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}