Epigenetic reprogramming using 5-azacytidine promotes an anti-cancer response in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells

Curative management of pancreatic adenocarcinoma is limited because this malignancy remains resistant to most chemotherapeutic drugs. Strategies that reverse epigenetic alterations offer a unique opportunity for cancer cell reprogramming, which is valuable for development of new treatments. The aim of this work was to reprogram pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells toward a less aggressive and drug-responsive phenotype. The process applied is called “epigenetic reprogramming”. To evaluate the efficiency of PDAC epigenetic reprogramming, we assessed tumor growth and drug response in PANC-1 cells after exposure to non-cytotoxic doses of the demethylating agent 5-azacytidine (5-AZA). Here, we showed that an epigenetic regimen using 5-AZA promoted an anti-cancer response by inhibiting PDAC tumor growth in vivo after the engraftment of treated cells. Remarkably, the subsequent addition of gemcitabine (GEM) to the 5-AZA-mediated reprogramming resulted in a marked growth inhibition effect in GEM-resistant pancreatic cancer cells. We observed that various characteristic peptides expressed in the pancreas, which included the antiproliferative hormone somatostatin (SST) and the SST receptor 2 (SSTR2), were significantly upregulated in the epigenetically reprogrammed PDAC cells. The inhibitory effect of octreotide (OCT), an SST analog, was tested on PDAC cells and found to be improved after cell reprogramming. Furthermore, we found that SST gene expression restoration following 5-AZA treatment or following knockdown of the DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) 1 enzyme was associated with the reversion of SST epigenetic silencing through regional CpG demethylation. Lastly, we confirmed the efficacy of 5-AZA-based epigenetic reprogramming in vivo using a PDAC tumor growth model. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that epigenetic reprogramming using the demethylating compound 5-AZA shows anti-cancer effects in PANC-1 cells and is potentially attractive for the treatment of solid tumors.