ADAM9 deficiency mediates KRAS related pathways in pancreatic cancer cells
Kirsten rat sarcoma virus (KRAS) signaling drives pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) malignancy, which is an unmet clinical need. Here we identify a disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain 9 (ADAM9) as a modulator of PDAC progression via stabilization of wild-type and mutant KRAS proteins. Mechanistically, ADAM9 loss increases the interaction of KRAS with plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), which functions as a selective autophagy receptor in conjunction with LC3, triggering the lysosomal degradation of KRAS. Suppression of ADAM9 by a small molecule inhibitor restricts disease progression in spontaneous models, and the combination with gemcitabine elicits dramatic regression of patient-derived tumors. Our findings provide a promising strategy to target the KRAS signaling cascade and demonstrate a potential modality to enhance sensitivity to chemotherapy in PDAC. Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for Pan18 cells and its ADAM9 KO derivatives (ADAM9 WT and ADAM9 KO).