Targeting the LOX/hypoxia axis reverses many of the features that make pancreatic cancer deadly: inhibition of LOX abrogates metastasis and enhances drug efficacy

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Bryan W Miller
  • Jennifer P Morton
  • Mark Pinese
  • Grazia Saturno
  • Nigel B Jamieson
  • Ewan McGhee
  • Paul Timpson
  • Joshua Leach
  • Lynn McGarry
  • Emma Shanks
  • Peter Bailey
  • David Chang
  • Karin Oien
  • Saadia Karim
  • Amy Au
  • Colin Steele
  • Christopher Ross Carter
  • Colin McKay
  • Kurt Anderson
  • Thomas R Jeffry Evans
  • Richard Marais
  • Caroline Springer
  • Andrew Biankin
  • Owen J Sansom

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality. Despite significant advances made in the treatment of other cancers, current chemotherapies offer little survival benefit in this disease. Pancreaticoduodenectomy offers patients the possibility of a cure, but most will die of recurrent or metastatic disease. Hence, preventing metastatic disease in these patients would be of significant benefit. Using principal component analysis (PCA), we identified a LOX/hypoxia signature associated with poor patient survival in resectable patients. We found that LOX expression is upregulated in metastatic tumors from Pdx1-Cre Kras(G12D/+) Trp53(R172H/+) (KPC) mice and that inhibition of LOX in these mice suppressed metastasis. Mechanistically, LOX inhibition suppressed both migration and invasion of KPC cells. LOX inhibition also synergized with gemcitabine to kill tumors and significantly prolonged tumor-free survival in KPC mice with early-stage tumors. This was associated with stromal alterations, including increased vasculature and decreased fibrillar collagen, and increased infiltration of macrophages and neutrophils into tumors. Therefore, LOX inhibition is able to reverse many of the features that make PDAC inherently refractory to conventional therapies and targeting LOX could improve outcome in surgically resectable disease.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEMBO Molecular Medicine
Volume7
Issue number8
Pages (from-to)1063-1076
Number of pages13
ISSN1757-4676
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jun 2015

ID: 140681527