Stress adaptation pathways and HA-CD44 signaling maintain the survival of pancreatic cancer cells with centrosome amplification

Abstract

Centrosome amplification (CA) is a hallmark of aggressive cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and is linked to genomic instability and poor prognosis. While CA promotes tumor evolution, it also imposes substantial intracellular stress that cells must overcome to survive. However, the specific metabolic adaptations that enable cancer cells to tolerate stress induced by supernumerary centrosomes remain poorly understood. Here, we show that PDAC cells with CA acquire distinct metabolic dependencies that sustain survival. A metabolism-focused CRISPR-Cas9 screen, coupled with functional validations, identified critical vulnerabilities in three inter-connected axes: redox homeostasis, nucleotide sugar metabolism, and the unfolded protein response (UPR). Specifically, CA elevates intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), creating a reliance on glutamine metabolism and NRF2-driven antioxidant signaling. CRISPR screen hits in the hexosamine and uronic acid pathways revealed dependencies that converge on hyaluronic acid (HA) metabolism, and functional assays demonstrated that the HA-CD44 axis is required for centrosome clustering and mitotic fidelity, with its disruption increasing lethal multipolar divisions. In parallel, CA activated all branches of the UPR, and both hyper-activation and suppression of ER stress proved detrimental, indicating a finely tuned proteostatic equilibrium is essential for adaptation. Together, these findings show that, in a PLK4-driven model, centrosome-amplified cells rely on coordinated redox control, proteostatic buffering, and extracellular matrix signaling to tolerate CA-induced stress, revealing selective vulnerabilities that could be therapeutically exploited to target aggressive, therapy-resistant tumor subpopulations.