Caenorhabditis elegans Exhibits Selective Chemotaxis to Cancer Cell–Conditioned Media

TL;DR

C. elegans worms can detect cancer-related chemical signals and learn to respond to them, suggesting potential use in cancer screening.

Contribution

Demonstrates that C. elegans exhibits olfactory learning toward cancer cell-conditioned media.

Findings

Wild-type worms oriented toward non-cancerous cell media compared to controls.

Training with cancer-conditioned media altered worm chemotaxis behavior.

C. elegans shows potential for detecting cancer-associated metabolites.

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans
is emerging as a valuable model for investigating chemosensory responses to disease-associated molecular cues recently. In this study, we examined the chemotaxis behavior of
C. elegans
toward the conditioned media from cancerous MIA PaCa-2 and PANC-1 cells and non-cancerous PNT1A cells. Untrained wild-type worms exhibited orientation to PNT1A media compared to the controls. Most importantly, training with cancer-conditioned media led to altered chemotaxis behavior, indicating olfactory learning. These findings support the use of
C. elegans
as a sensitive and adaptable system for detecting cancer-associated metabolites and demonstrate its potential role in non-invasive cancer screening applications and training-based models.

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