The therapeutic targeting of the FGFR1/Src/NF-κB signaling axis inhibits pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma stemness and oncogenicity
2018
The aberrant activation of the FGFR signaling is detected in many solid tumors, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), suggesting it as a potential therapeutic target. In this study, we investigated the antitumor and anti-metastasis efficacy of the selective FGFR1 inhibitor, PD173074 in PDAC. We used immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization analyses to demonstrate a strong correlation between FGFR1 amplification and/or expression and disease progression in PDAC patients. We showed that ALDHhigh (ALDH+) pancreatic cancer cells exhibited stem cell-like phenotype and expressed higher levels of FGFR1, Src, NF-κB, alongside stemness markers like Oct4 and Sox2, compared to their ALDHlow/null (ALDH−) counterparts, suggesting the preferential activation of the FGFR1/Src/NF-κB signaling axis in pancreatic cancer stem cells (panCSCs). Furthermore, treatment of the ALDHhigh/ FGFR1-rich pancreatic cancer cell lines with PD173074, a selective FGFR1 inhibitor, revealed that PD173074 inhibited the proliferation and self-renewal of the panCSCs, and induced their apoptosis by activating caspase-3 and cleaving Poly-ADP ribose Polymerase (PARP). The anti-CSCs effect of PD173074 was associated with decreased expression of Oct4, Sox-2, Nanog, and c-Myc, as well as suppression of XIAP, Bcl2, and survivin expression, dose-dependently. Additionally, activation of cMet, Src, ERK 1/2 and NFκB (p65) was also inhibited by PD173074. Also, of clinical relevance, the disruption of the FGFR1/Src/NF-κB signaling axis positively correlated with poor clinical prognosis among the PDAC patients. We concluded that PD173074 suppresses the tumorigenesis and CSCs-like phenotype of PDAC cells, highlighting its therapeutic efficacy and providing support for its potential use as a therapeutic option for the ‘difficult-to-treat’, ‘quick-to-relapse’ PDAC patients.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
25
References
14
Citations
NaN
KQI