Disruption of cellular plasticity by repeat RNAs in human pancreatic cancer

Eunae You, Patrick Danaher, Chenyue Lu, Siyu Sun, Luli Zou, Ildiko E. Phillips, Alexandra S. Rojas, Natalie I. Ho, Yuhui Song, Michael J. Raabe, Katherine H. Xu, Peter M. Richieri, Hao Li, Natalie Aston, Rebecca L. Porter, Bidish K. Patel, Linda T. Nieman, Nathan Schurman, Briana M. Hudson, Khrystyna NorthSarah E. Church, Vikram Deshpande, Andrew S. Liss, Tae K. Kim, Yi Cui, Youngmi Kim, Benjamin D. Greenbaum, Martin J. Aryee, David T. Ting

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Aberrant expression of repeat RNAs in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) mimics viral-like responses with implications on tumor cell state and the response of the surrounding microenvironment. To better understand the relationship of repeat RNAs in human PDAC, we performed spatial molecular imaging at single-cell resolution in 46 primary tumors, revealing correlations of high repeat RNA expression with alterations in epithelial state in PDAC cells and myofibroblast phenotype in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). This loss of cellular identity is observed with dosing of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and individual repeat RNAs of PDAC and CAF cell culture models pointing to cell-cell intercommunication of these viral-like elements. Differences in PDAC and CAF responses are driven by distinct innate immune signaling through interferon regulatory transcription factor 3 (IRF3). The cell-context-specific viral-like responses to repeat RNAs provide a mechanism for modulation of cellular plasticity in diverse cell types in the PDAC microenvironment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7232-7247.e23
JournalCell
Volume187
Issue number25
DOIs
StatePublished - 12 Dec 2024
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • cancer-associated fibroblast
  • cellular plasticity
  • extracellular vesicles
  • pancreatic cancer
  • repeat RNA

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