scholarly journals Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Therapeutics Targeting RTK and TGF Beta Receptor

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 8125
Author(s):  
Hsin-Han Yang ◽  
Jen-Wei Liu ◽  
Jui-Hao Lee ◽  
Horng-Jyh Harn ◽  
Tzyy-Wen Chiou

Despite the improved overall survival rates in most cancers, pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers in this decade. The rigid microenvironment, which majorly comprises cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), plays an important role in the obstruction of pancreatic cancer therapy. To overcome this predicament, the signaling of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and TGF beta receptor (TGFβR) in both pancreatic cancer cell and supporting CAF should be considered as the therapeutic target. The activation of receptors has been reported to be aberrant to cell cycle regulation, and signal transduction pathways, such as growth-factor induced proliferation, and can also influence the apoptotic sensitivity of tumor cells. In this article, the regulation of RTKs/TGFβR between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and CAFs, as well as the RTKs/TGFβR inhibitor-based clinical trials on pancreatic cancer are reviewed.

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 525-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus M. Lerch ◽  
Julia Mayerle ◽  
Ujjwal Mahajan ◽  
Matthias Sendler ◽  
F. Ulrich Weiss ◽  
...  

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the 4th leading cause of cancer death worldwide and compared to other malignancies its share in cancer mortality is expected to rise further. This is due to a lack of sensitive diagnostic tools that would permit earlier detection in a potentially curable stage and the very slow progress in finding effective drug treatments for pancreatic cancer. Key Messages: Aside from genetic predispositions and environmental agents, chronic pancreatitis is by far the greatest risk factor for PDAC. It also shares several etiological factors with pancreatic cancer and represents its most challenging differential diagnosis. Biomarkers that can distinguish between chronic pancreatitis and PDAC may therefore be suitable for the latter's early detection. Moreover, targeting the natural history of chronic pancreatitis would be one approach to prevent PDAC. Targeting tumor-cell signaling directly by interfering with receptor tyrosine kinases has shown some efficacy, although the results in clinical trials were less encouraging than for other cancers. Other compounds developed have targeted the formation of extracellular matrix around the tumor, the proteolytic activity in the tumor environment, histone deacetylases, hedgehog signaling and heat shock proteins, but none has yet found its way into routine patient care. Attempts to individualize treatment according to the tumor's somatic mutation profile are novel but so far impractical. Conclusions: Progress in the treatment of pancreatic cancer has been exceedingly slow and mostly dependent on improved pharmaceutical preparations or combinations of established chemotherapeutic agents. The promise of major breakthroughs implied in targeting tumor signal transduction events has so far not materialized.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1016-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Qu ◽  
Qing Wang ◽  
Zhiqiang Meng ◽  
Peng Wang

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is characterized by an extensive stromal response called desmoplasia. Within the tumor stroma, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the primary cell type. CAFs have been shown to play a role in pancreatic cancer progression; they secrete growth factors, inflammatory cytokines, and chemokines that stimulate signaling pathways in cancer cells and modulate the cancer biology toward increased aggressiveness. Therefore, targeting CAFs may serve as a powerful weapon against pancreatic cancer and improve therapeutic effects. However, a previous study aiming to deplete CAFs by inhibiting sonic Hedgehog signaling failed to show any benefit in survival time of pancreatic cancer patients. We reported that the natural product curcumin reeducated CAFs in pancreatic cancer treatment. A low concentration of curcumin reversed the activation of fibroblasts without exhibiting growth suppression effects. In addition, curcumin suppressed CAF-induced pancreatic cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro and lung metastasis in vivo. The results of our study suggest that active CAFs can be inactivated by certain natural products such as curcumin. Reeducation of CAFs back to their normal state, rather than their indiscriminate depletion, may broaden our view in the development of therapeutic options for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenna A. Rheinheimer ◽  
Lukas Vrba ◽  
Bernard W Futscher ◽  
Ronald L Heimark

AbstractBackgroundSLIT2 has been shown to serve as a tumor suppressor in breast, lung, colon, and liver cancers. Additionally, expression of SLIT2 has been shown to be epigenetically regulated in prostate cancer. Therefore, we sought to determine transcriptional regulation of SLIT2 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.MethodsRNA expression of SLIT2, SLIT3, and ROBO1 was examined in a panel of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell lines while protein expression of ROBO1 and SLIT2 was examined in tumor tissue. Methylation of the SLIT2 promoter was determined using Sequenom while histone modifications were queried by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Reexpression of SLIT2 was tested by treatment with 5-aza-2’deoxycytidine and Trichostatin A.ResultsPancreatic cancer cell lines fall into three distinct groups based on SLIT2 and ROBO1 expression. The SLIT2 promoter is methylated in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and SLIT2 expression is dependent on the level of methylation at specific CpG sites. Treatment with 5-aza-2’deoxycytidine (but not Trichostatin A) led to SLIT2 reexpression. The SLIT2 promoter is bivalent in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and histone marks around the transcriptional start site are responsible for transcription.ConclusionsLoss of SLIT2 expression modulated by epigenetic silencing may play a role in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma progression.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 8679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin F. Creeden ◽  
Khaled Alganem ◽  
Ali S. Imami ◽  
F. Charles Brunicardi ◽  
Shi-He Liu ◽  
...  

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult malignancies to treat. Minimal improvements in patient outcomes and persistently abysmal patient survival rates underscore the great need for new treatment strategies. Currently, there is intense interest in therapeutic strategies that target tyrosine protein kinases. Here, we employed kinome arrays and bioinformatic pipelines capable of identifying differentially active protein tyrosine kinases in different patient-derived pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cell lines and wild-type pancreatic tissue to investigate the unique kinomic networks of PDAC samples and posit novel target kinases for pancreatic cancer therapy. Consistent with previously described reports, the resultant peptide-based kinome array profiles identified increased protein tyrosine kinase activity in pancreatic cancer for the following kinases: epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), fms related receptor tyrosine kinase 4/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (FLT4/VEGFR-3), insulin receptor (INSR), ephrin receptor A2 (EPHA2), platelet derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA), SRC proto-oncogene kinase (SRC), and tyrosine kinase non receptor 2 (TNK2). Furthermore, this study identified increased activity for protein tyrosine kinases with limited prior evidence of differential activity in pancreatic cancer. These protein tyrosine kinases include B lymphoid kinase (BLK), Fyn-related kinase (FRK), Lck/Yes-related novel kinase (LYN), FYN proto-oncogene kinase (FYN), lymphocyte cell-specific kinase (LCK), tec protein kinase (TEC), hemopoietic cell kinase (HCK), ABL proto-oncogene 2 kinase (ABL2), discoidin domain receptor 1 kinase (DDR1), and ephrin receptor A8 kinase (EPHA8). Together, these results support the utility of peptide array kinomic analyses in the generation of potential candidate kinases for future pancreatic cancer therapeutic development.


2016 ◽  
Vol 310 (11) ◽  
pp. G1124-G1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Vorvis ◽  
Maria Hatziapostolou ◽  
Swapna Mahurkar-Joshi ◽  
Marina Koutsioumpa ◽  
Jennifer Williams ◽  
...  

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive cancer with low survival rates and limited therapeutic options. Thus elucidation of signaling pathways involved in PDAC pathogenesis is essential for identifying novel potential therapeutic gene targets. Here, we used a systems approach to elucidate those pathways by integrating gene and microRNA profiling analyses together with CRISPR/Cas9 technology to identify novel transcription factors involved in PDAC pathogenesis. FOXA2 transcription factor was found to be significantly downregulated in PDAC relative to control pancreatic tissues. Functional experiments revealed that FOXA2 has a tumor suppressor function through inhibition of pancreatic cancer cell growth, migration, invasion, and colony formation. In situ hybridization analysis revealed miR-199a to be significantly upregulated in pancreatic cancer. Bioinformatics and luciferase analyses showed that miR-199a negatively but directly regulates FOXA2 expression through binding in its 3′-untranslated region (UTR). Evaluation of the functional importance of miR-199a on pancreatic cancer revealed that miR-199a acts as an inhibitor of FOXA2 expression, inducing an increase in pancreatic cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Additionally, gene ontology and network analyses in PANC-1 cells treated with a small interfering RNA (siRNA) against FOXA2 revealed an enrichment for cell invasion mechanisms through PLAUR and ERK activation. FOXA2 deletion (FOXA2Δ) by using two CRISPR/Cas9 vectors in PANC-1 cells induced tumor growth in vivo resulting in upregulation of PLAUR and ERK pathways in FOXA2Δ xenograft tumors. We have identified FOXA2 as a novel tumor suppressor in pancreatic cancer and it is regulated directly by miR-199a, thereby enhancing our understanding of how microRNAs interplay with the transcription factors to affect pancreatic oncogenesis.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Marwa Elsayed ◽  
Maen Abdelrahim

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the US, and it is expected to be the second leading cause of cancer deaths by 2030. The lack of effective early screening tests and alarming symptoms with early undetectable micro-metastasis at the time of presentation play a vital role in the high death rate from pancreatic cancer. In addition to this, the low mutation burden in pancreatic cancer, low immunological profile, dense tumorigenesis stroma, and decreased tumor sensitivity to cytotoxic drugs contribute to the low survival rates in PDAC patients. Despite breakthroughs in chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic drugs, pancreatic cancer remains one of the solid tumors that exhibit meager curative rates. Therefore, researchers must dedicate more effort to understanding the pathology and immunological behavior of PDAC, in addition to properly utilizing more advanced screening modalities and new therapeutic agents. In our review, we focus mainly on the latest updates from clinical guidelines and novel therapies that have been recently investigated or are under investigation for PDAC. We used PubMed as a search tool for finding original research articles addressing the latest developments in diagnosing and treating PDAC. Additionally, we also used the clinical trials published on clinicaltrialsgov as sources for our data.


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