Prometastatic secretome trafficking via exosomes initiates pancreatic cancer pulmonary metastasis

Kosuke Ogawa, Qiushi Lin, Le Li, Xuewei Bai, Xuesong Chen, Hua Chen, Rui Kong, Yongwei Wang, Hong Zhu, Fuliang He, Qinggang Xu, Lianxin Liu, Min Li, Songhua Zhang, Katsuya Nagaoka, Rolf Carlson, Howard Safran, Kevin Charpentier, Bei Sun, Jack WandsXiaoqun Dong

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

To demonstrate multifaceted contribution of aspartate β-hydroxylase (ASPH) to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) pathogenesis, in vitro metastasis assay and patient derived xenograft (PDX) murine models were established. ASPH propagates aggressive phenotypes characterized by enhanced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), 2-D/3-D invasion, extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation/remodeling, angiogenesis, stemness, transendothelial migration and metastatic colonization/outgrowth at distant sites. Mechanistically, ASPH activates Notch cascade through direct physical interactions with Notch1/JAGs and ADAMs. The ASPH-Notch axis enables prometastatic secretome trafficking via exosomes, subsequently initiates MMPs mediated ECM degradation/remodeling as an effector for invasiveness. Consequently, ASPH fosters primary tumor development and pulmonary metastasis in PDX models, which was blocked by a newly developed small molecule inhibitor (SMI) specifically against ASPH's β-hydroxylase activity. Clinically, ASPH is silenced in normal pancreas, progressively upregulated from pre-malignant lesions to invasive/advanced stage PDAC. Relatively high levels of ASPH-Notch network components independently/jointly predict curtailed overall survival (OS) in PDAC patients (log-rank test, Ps < 0.001; Cox proportional hazards regression, P < 0.001). Therefore, ASPH-Notch axis is essential for propagating multiple-steps of metastasis and predicts prognosis of PDAC patients. A specific SMI targeting ASPH offers a novel therapeutic approach to substantially retard PDAC development/progression.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)63-75
Number of pages13
JournalCancer Letters
Volume481
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2020

Keywords

  • Aspartate β-hydroxylase (ASPH)
  • Exosome
  • Notch
  • Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)
  • Patient derived xenograft (PDX)
  • Small molecule inhibitor (SMI)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

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