KIF2C Facilitates Tumor Growth and Metastasis in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

SIMPLE SUMMARY: For patients with pancreatic cancer, due to the concealment of early symptoms, rapid progress, and easy metastasis, the prognosis is grim. Based on clinical specimens, we found that KIF2C is abnormally expressed in pancreatic cancer, related to the stage of the patient. Through in vivo and in vitro experiments, we confirmed that KIF2C affects the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of pancreatic cancer. Following this, via flow cytometry, we detected that KIF2C affects the cell cycle of pancreatic cancer and verified the expression of some genes related to the underlying mechanism in the sequenced transcriptome data. ABSTRACT: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal cancer with a poor prognosis. For PDAC, an increase in the survival time of patients and a reduction mortality have not yet successfully been achieved. In many research works, Kinesin family member 2C (KIF2C) is highly expressed in several tumors. Nevertheless, the role of KIF2C in pancreatic cancer is unknown. In this study, we found that KIF2C expression is significantly upregulated in human PDAC tissues and cell lines such as ASPC-1 and MIA-PaCa2. Moreover, KIF2C upregulation is associated with a poor prognosis when combining the expression of KIF2C with clinical information. Through cell functional assays and the construction of animal models, we showed that KIF2C promotes PDAC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and metastasis, both in vitro and in vivo. Finally, the results of sequencing showed that the overexpression of KIF2C causes a decrease in some proinflammatory factors and chemokines. The cell cycle detection indicated that the pancreatic cancer cells in the overexpressed group had abnormal proliferation in the G2 and S phases. These results revealed the potential of KIF2C as a therapeutic target for the treatment of PDAC.