Endoscopic therapy of pancreatic cancer using CRISPR system.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K19356
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Gastroenterology
Research Institution	Miyagi Prefectural Hospital Organization Miyagi Cancer Center
Principal Investigator	Abue Makoto 地方独立行政法人宮城県立病院機構宮城県立がんセンター(研究所), がん幹細胞研究部, 特任研究員 (50599967)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Keywords	膵癌 / K-ras / CRISPR / EUS
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In this study, in order to examine the expression and role of PKM2 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), we knocked down PKM2 in PDAC cells by introducing small interfering and short hairpin RNAs, and examined the gene expression profiles in the cells by microarray analysis. We analyzed the energy-producing pathways in the cells by XFe Extracellular Flux Analyzers, and detected intracellular metabolites by capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We found that the RNAi-mediated knockdown of PKM2 diminished the proliferative, migratory and tumorigenic ability of the PDAC cell-lines. PKM2 knockdown also resulted in lower glycolytic activities and decreased levels of some intracellular metabolites, such as pyruvate and polyamine. On the whole, the findings of this study demonstrate that PKM2 plays an important role in metabolic activities, as well as in the malignancy of PDAC cells.