Ko, Soyeon Jung, Kyung Hee Yoon, Young -Chan Han, Beom Seok Park, Min Seok Lee, Yun Ji Kim, Sang Eun Cho, Ye Jin Lee, Pureunchowon Lim, Joo Han Ryu, Ji-Kan Kim, Kewon Kim, Tae Young Hong, Sungwoo Lee, So Ha Hong, Soon-Sun 2024-01-19T11:03:27Z 2024-01-19T11:03:27Z 2022-10-27 2022-09 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/114552 Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an extracellular matrix (ECM)-rich carcinoma, which pro-motes chemoresistance by inhibiting drug diffusion into the tumor. Discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) increases tumor progression and drug resistance by binding to collagen, a major component of tumor ECM. Therefore, DDR1 inhibition may be helpful in cancer therapeutics by increasing drug delivery efficiency and improving drug sensitiv-ity. In this study, we developed a novel DDR1 inhibitor, KI-301690 and investigated whether it could improve the anticancer activity of gemcitabine, a cytotoxic agent widely used for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. KI-301690 synergized with gemcitabine to suppress the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. Importantly, its combination sig-nificantly attenuated the expression of major tumor ECM components including collagen, fibronectin, and vimentin compared to gemcitabine alone. Additionally, this combination effectively decreased mitochondrial membrane po-tential (MMP), thereby inducing apoptosis. Further, the combination synergistically inhibited cell migration and inva-sion. The enhanced anticancer efficacy of the co-treatment could be explained by the inhibition of DDR1/PYK2/FAK signaling, which significantly reduced tumor growth in a pancreatic xenograft model. Our results demonstrate that KI-301690 can inhibit aberrant ECM expression by DDR1/PYK2/FAK signaling pathway blockade and attenuation of ECM-induced chemoresistance observed in desmoplastic pancreatic tumors, resulting in enhanced antitumor effect through effective induction of gemcitabine apoptosis. English e-Century Publishing Corporation A novel DDR1 inhibitor enhances the anticancer activity of gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer Article 1 American Journal of Cancer Research, v.12, no.9, pp.4326 - 4342 American Journal of Cancer Research 12 9 4326 4342 N scie 000863540900016 Oncology Oncology Article CELL-SURVIVAL KINASE IDENTIFICATION ACTIVATION STRATEGY DDR1 pancreatic cancer ECM collagen gemcitabine