title: Overexpression of G protein-coupled receptor GPR87 promotes pancreatic cancer aggressiveness and activates NF-κB signaling pathway.
abstract: Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease and has the worst prognosis of any major malignancy. G protein-coupled receptor GPR87 is reported to be overexpressed in multiple cancers. The clinical significance and biological role of GPR87 in pancreatic cancer, however, remain to be established.
  
  
  
  GPR87 expression in pancreatic cancer cell lines, paired patient tissues were determined using western blotting and Real-time PCR. Ninety-six human pancreatic cancer tissue samples were analyzed by immunochemistry (IHC) to investigate the association between GPR87 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of pancreatic cancer. Functional assays, such as anchorage-independent growth, chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay, transwell matrix penetration assay, and Annexin V-FITC and PI staining and a xenograft tumor model were used to determine the oncogenic role of GPR87 in human pancreatic cancer progression. The effect of GPR87 on NF-κB signaling pathway was further investigated using the luciferase reporter assays, and by detection of the NF-κB signaling downstream genes.
  
  
  
  Herein, we reported that GPR87 was markedly overexpressed in pancreatic cancer cells and clinical tissues. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the expression of GPR87 significantly correlated with patients' clinicopathologic features, including clinical stage and tumor-nodule-metastasis (TNM) classification. Pancreatic cancer patients with higher levels of GPR87 expression had shorter overall survival compared to patients with lower GPR87 levels. We gained valuable insights into the mechanism of GPR87 expression in pancreatic cancer cells by demonstrating that overexpressing GPR87 significantly enhanced, whereas silencing endogenous GPR87 inhibited, the proliferation, angiogenesis and increased resistance to gemcitabine-induced apoptosis of pancreatic cancer in vitro and tumorigenicity of pancreatic cancer cells in vivo. Finally, we demonstrated that GPR87 enhanced pancreatic cancer aggressiveness by activating NF-κB signaling pathway.
  
  
  
  Taken together, these findings suggest that GPR87 plays a critical oncogenic role in pancreatic cancer progression and highlight its potential as a target for pancreatic cancer therapy.
  
  
  
  Our findings suggest that GPR87 plays a critical oncogenic role in pancreatic cancer progression and highlight its potential as a target for pancreatic cancer therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1277 JieFang Avenue, Wuhan, 430022, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yunfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yongbao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huo
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Sudong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shanmiao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gou
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Heshui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pancreatic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China. unionliutao@163.com.|Department of Digestive Surgical Oncology, Cancer Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People's Republic of China. unionliutao@163.com.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D015870:Gene Expression; D020868:Gene Silencing; D064593:Heterografts; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D049368:Receptors, Lysophosphatidic Acid / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C526276:GPR87 protein, human; D016328:NF-kappa B; D049368:Receptors, Lysophosphatidic Acid
keywords: Apoptosis; GPR87; NF-κB signaling; Pancreatic cancer; Tumorigenicity