TGFβ Drives Metabolic Perturbations during Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition in Pancreatic Cancer: TGFβ Induced EMT in PDAC

Abstract

TGF beta; Pancreatic cancer; Tumor microenvironment

TGF beta; Cancer de pancreas; Microambiente tumoral

TGF beta; Càncer de pàncrees; Microambient tumoral

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal malignancy wherein a majority of patients present metastatic disease at diagnosis. Although the role of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), mediated by transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ), in imparting an aggressive phenotype to PDAC is well documented, the underlying biochemical pathway perturbations driving this behaviour have not been elucidated. We used high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) based molecular phenotyping approach in order to delineate metabolic changes concomitant to TGFβ-induced EMT in pancreatic cancer cells. Strikingly, we observed robust changes in amino acid and energy metabolism that may contribute to tumor invasion and metastasis. Somewhat unexpectedly, TGFβ treatment resulted in an increase in intracellular levels of retinoic acid (RA) that in turn resulted in increased levels of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins including fibronectin (FN) and collagen (COL1). These findings were further validated in plasma samples obtained from patients with resectable pancreatic cancer. Taken together, these observations provide novel insights into small molecule dysregulation that triggers a molecular cascade resulting in increased EMT-like changes in pancreatic cancer cells, a paradigm that can be potentially targeted for better clinical outcomes.

This study was supported by American Cancer Society (IRG-92-152-17 award number AWD4470404), Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Support Grant Developmental Funds and Ruesch Foundation to K.U. and A.K.C.