PKCι and YAP1 are crucial in promoting pancreatic tumorigenesis.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a fatal malignant disease with 5-year survival rate of less than 6%. Activating mutations of () are often detected in most of PDAC patients. Although it has been known that oncogenic is the driver of pancreatic cancer initiation and development, the underlying mechanisms by which promotes PDAC remain poorly understood. Here, we identify that PKCι is one of the crucial factors for supporting the survival of pancreatic cancer cells expressing . Our study demonstrates that after the knockdown of PKCι, the expression of the transcriptional co-activator YAP1 is decreased, which hinders the expression of the downstream target gene , and subsequently sensitizes pancreatic cancer MiaPaCa and PANC-1 cells experssing to apoptosis. In comparison, the suppression of PKCι has little impact on the viability of non-neoplastic pancreatic HPDE6-C7 cells. Moreover, the transient overexpression of oncogenic Kras in HPDE6-C7 elevates the expression of PKCι and YAP1 concomitantly. The upregulated YAP1 in HPDE6-C7/ cells is abolished once PKCι is suppressed, suggesting the linear relationship among mu-Kras, PKCι and YAP1. This phenomenon is further proven by the co-upregulation of PKCι and YAP1 in HPDE6-C7 cells stably transfected with . Taken together, our findings suggest that PKCι acts through promoting YAP1 function to promote the survival of pancreatic cancer cells expressing . It appears that targeting PKCι-YAP1 signaling is a feasible strategy for developing new therapeutics for treating pancreatic cancer patients.