Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Exploiting oxidative phosphorylation to promote the stem and immunoevasive properties of pancreatic cancer stem cells

  • Sandra Valle
  • , Sonia Alcalá
  • , Laura Martin-Hijano
  • , Pablo Cabezas-Sáinz
  • , Diego Navarro
  • , Edurne Ramos Muñoz
  • , Lourdes Yuste
  • , Kanishka Tiwary
  • , Karolin Walter
  • , Laura Ruiz-Cañas
  • , Marta Alonso-Nocelo
  • , Juan A. Rubiolo
  • , Emilio González-Arnay
  • , Christopher Heeschen
  • , Laura Garcia-Bermejo
  • , Patrick C. Hermann
  • , Laura Sánchez
  • , Patricia Sancho
  • , Miguel Ángel Fernández-Moreno
  • , Bruno Sainz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

115 Scopus citations

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the fourth leading cause of cancer death, has a 5-year survival rate of approximately 7–9%. The ineffectiveness of anti-PDAC therapies is believed to be due to the existence of a subpopulation of tumor cells known as cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are functionally plastic, and have exclusive tumorigenic, chemoresistant and metastatic capacities. Herein, we describe a 2D in vitro system for long-term enrichment of pancreatic CSCs that is amenable to biological and CSC-specific studies. By changing the carbon source from glucose to galactose in vitro, we force PDAC cells to utilize OXPHOS, resulting in enrichment of CSCs defined by increased CSC biomarker and pluripotency gene expression, greater tumorigenic potential, induced but reversible quiescence, increased OXPHOS activity, enhanced invasiveness, and upregulated immune evasion properties. This CSC enrichment method can facilitate the discovery of new CSC-specific hallmarks for future development into targets for PDAC-based therapies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5265
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2020
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Exploiting oxidative phosphorylation to promote the stem and immunoevasive properties of pancreatic cancer stem cells'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this