Angiogenic gene signature in human pancreatic cancer correlates with TGF-beta and inflammatory transcriptomes

// Kelly E. Craven 1, * , Jesse Gore 2, 3, * , Julie L. Wilson 2 , Murray Korc 1, 2, 3 1 Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA 2 Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA 3 The Pancreatic Cancer Signature Center at Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Jesse Gore, e-mail: ajgore@iu.edu Keywords: pancreatic cancer, TCGA, angiogenesis, TGF-β, inflammation Received: October 13, 2015      Accepted: November 08, 2015      Published: November 18, 2015 ABSTRACT Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) are hypovascular, but overexpress pro-angiogenic factors and exhibit regions of microvasculature. Using RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we previously reported that ~12% of PDACs have an angiogenesis gene signature with increased expression of multiple pro-angiogenic genes. By analyzing the recently expanded TCGA dataset, we now report that this signature is present in ~35% of PDACs but that it is mostly distinct from an angiogenesis signature present in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs). These PDACs exhibit a transcriptome that reflects active TGF-β signaling, and up-regulation of several pro-inflammatory genes, and many members of JAK signaling pathways. Moreover, expression of SMAD4 and HDAC9 correlates with endothelial cell abundance in PDAC tissues. Concomitantly targeting the TGF-β type I receptor (TβRI) kinase with SB505124 and JAK1-2 with ruxolitinib suppresses JAK1 phosphorylation and blocks proliferative cross-talk between human pancreatic cancer cells (PCCs) and human endothelial cells (ECs), and these anti-proliferative effects were mimicked by JAK1 silencing in ECs. By contrast, either inhibitor alone does not suppress their enhanced proliferation in 3D co-cultures. These findings suggest that targeting both TGF-β and JAK1 signaling could be explored therapeutically in the 35% of PDAC patients whose cancers exhibit an angiogenesis gene signature.