单位:[1]Harvard Med Sch, Dana Farber Canc Inst, Boston, MA 02115 USA[2]Huazhong Univ Sci & Technol, Tongji Hosp, Tongji Med Coll, Dept Gastroenterol, Wuhan, Hubei, Peoples R China内科学系消化内科华中科技大学同济医学院附属同济医院[3]Jikei Univ, Div Mol Epidemiol, Sch Med, Tokyo, Japan[4]Xiamen Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Pathol, Xiamen, Fujian, Peoples R China[5]Keio Univ, Dept Urol, Med Sch, Tokyo, Japan
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) and poorly differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine (NE) carcinomas are KRAS mutant malignancies with a potential common cell of origin. PDAC ductal, but not NE, lineage traits have been associated with cell-intrinsic activation of interferon (IFN) pathways. The present studies demonstrate that the MUC1 C-terminal subunit (MUC1-C), which evolved to protect mammalian epithelia from loss of homeostasis, is aberrantly overexpressed in KRAS mutant PDAC tumors and cell lines. We show that MUC1-C is necessary for activation of the type I and II IFN pathways and for expression of the Yamanaka OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and MYC (OSKM) pluripotency factors. Our results demonstrate that MUC1-C integrates IFN signaling and pluripotency with NE dedifferentiation by forming a complex with MYC and driving the (i) achaete-scute homolog 1 and BRN2/POU3F2 neural, and (ii) NOTCH1/2 stemness transcription factors. Of translational relevance, targeting MUC1-C genetically and pharmacologically in PDAC cells (i) suppresses OSKM, NE dedifferentiation and NOTCH1/2, and (ii) inhibits self-renewal capacity and tumorigenicity. In PDAC tumors, we show that MUC1 significantly associates with activation of IFN signaling, MYC and NOTCH, and that upregulation of the MUC1-C -> MYC pathway confers a poor prognosis. These findings indicate that MUC1-C dictates PDAC NE lineage specification and is a potential target for the treatment of recalcitrant pancreatic carcinomas with NE dedifferentiation. Our results demonstrate that MUC1-C drives PDAC progression by integrating induction of neuroendocrine (NE) dedifferentiation with self-renewal capacity and tumorigenicity, in support of MUC1-C as a druggable target for the treatment of poorly differentiated pancreatic NE carcinomas.
基金:
National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health [CA97098, CA166480, CA233084]
第一作者单位:[1]Harvard Med Sch, Dana Farber Canc Inst, Boston, MA 02115 USA[2]Huazhong Univ Sci & Technol, Tongji Hosp, Tongji Med Coll, Dept Gastroenterol, Wuhan, Hubei, Peoples R China