The role of HuR in gemcitabine efficacy in pancreatic cancer: HuR Up-regulates the expression of the gemcitabine metabolizing enzyme deoxycytidine kinase.

ABSTRACT: RNA-binding protein HuR binds U- or AU-rich sequences in the 3'-untranslated regions of target mRNAs, stabilizing them and/or modulating their translation. Given the links of HuR with cancer, we studied the consequences of modulating HuR levels in pancreatic cancer cells. HuR-overexpressing cancer cells, in some instances, are roughly up to 30-fold more sensitive to treatment with gemcitabine, the main chemotherapeutic component of treatment regimens for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), compared with control cells. In pancreatic cancer cells, HuR associates with deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) mRNA, which encodes the enzyme that metabolizes and thereby activates gemcitabine. Gemcitabine exposure to pancreatic cancer cells enriches the association between HuR and dCK mRNA and increases cy

SUBMITTER: Costantino CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2744447 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature