310 Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive disease with a 5-year survival rate of < 5%. Early diagnosis is rare and treatment options are often limited. Recent studies have reported that the proteasome inhibitor Argyrin A, a cyclic peptide derived from the myxobacterium Archangium gephyra, shows antitumoral activities. The aim of the present study is to explore the anti-tumor activity of this analogue Argyrin F (AF) + Gemcitabine (G) in PDAC carcinogenesis. Methods: We analyzed the effect of AF on proliferation and epithelial plasticity of different human pancreatic cancer cell lines by using MTT-, wound healing-, invasion-, colony formation-, apoptosis- and senescence assay, as well as cell cycle analysis and Western Blot. In vivo, we assessed the effects of AF and combinational (AF + G) therapy in a genetically engineered mouse model (Pdx1- Cre; LSL-KrasG12D; p53 lox/+) of PDAC. Results: AF inhibited pancreatic cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion and colony formation compared to their respective untreated controls (DMSO). We also found that AF impairs epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) and induces considerable apoptosis and senescence in a dose-and time-dependent manner. AF application resulted in cell cycle G1/S phase transition. Most importantly, double treatment by AF + G showed prolonged survival and caused significant tumor reduction. Expression of Ki67 (anti-proliferative marker) and CD34 (tumor angiogenesis marker) was reduced both after AF and AF + G treatment of PDAC tumors in mice. Conclusions: Our work demonstrates that treatment with AF can successfully inhibit the growth of PDAC cells and combinational treatment with AF + G might be also a new and promising combinational therapy for human PDAC treatment.
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