Expression of G protein‐coupled receptors in pancreatic cancer cells

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal forms of cancer and has an overall 5‐year survival rate ~7%. PDAC has poor response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy; thus new treatments for PDAC are an important, unmet medical need. G protein‐coupled receptor (GPCR) regulate many biological functions, including in cancer cells, but GPCR expression and the role of GPCRs in PDAC cells is unclear. We generated two primary PDAC cell lines (79E and 34E) and an immortalized normal pancreatic ductal epithelial cell line (HPDE6). Hypothesizing that GPCRs may regulate PDAC cells, we used Taqman GPCR array to assess GPCR expression in four PDAC cell lines, 79E, 34E, Miapaca, and AsPC. We identified 68 commonly expressed GPCRs in all four PDAC cell lines, among which 22 GPCRs were significantly up‐regulated (at least 2‐fold) in PDAC cells compared to normal control cell HPDE6; 13 GPCRs were significantly down‐regulated and 3 GPCRs were uniquely expressed in PDACs. We further tested the 13 most up‐regulated GPCRs using real time qPCR and confirmed that LPHN1, CHRM4, FZD4, HRH1 and CD97 have much higher expression in PDACs compared to HPED6, suggesting that these GPCRs might contribute to the malignant phenotype and perhaps could be novel treatment targets for pancreatic cancer, in particular for PDAC.Support or Funding InformationThis work is supported by NIH/NCI Research Grants R21 CA189477, R01 CA155620, and Padres Pedal the Cause PTC2017.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.