H. Cheng, J. Li, C. Liu, W. Yao, Y. Xu, T. S. Frank, X. Cai, S. Shi, Y. Lu, Y. Qin, L. Liu, J. Xu, J. Long, Q.-X. Ni, M. Li and X.-J. Yu Pages 1368 - 1375 ( 8 )
Pancreatic cancer has an extremely poor prognosis mainly due to lack of effective treatment options. Radiotherapy is mostly applied to locally advanced cases, although tumor radioresistance limits the effectiveness. Profilin1, a novel tumor suppressor gene, was reported to be down-regulated in various cancers and associated with tumor progression. The objective of this study was to demonstrate how profilin1 affected pancreatic cancer radiosensitivity. We showed profilin1 was down-regulated in pancreatic cancer cells after exposure to radiation, and re-expression of profilin1 suppressed tumor cell viability and increased DNA damage following irradiation. Further studies revealed that up-regulation of profilin1 facilitated apoptosis and repressed autophagy induced by irradiation, which might sensitize pancreatic cancer cells to radiation treatment. Our findings may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for sensitizing pancreatic cancer to radiotherapy.
Apoptosis, autophagy, DNA damage, pancreatic cancer, profilin1, radiation.
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (X.-J. Yu) Pancreatic Cancer Institute, Fudan University; Department of Pancreatic & Hepatobiliary Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 270 DongAn Road, Shanghai 200032, P. R. China.