Pharmaceuticals (Mar 2021)

The Case for GNMT as a Biomarker and a Therapeutic Target in Pancreatic Cancer

  • Zachary Heinzman,
  • Connor Schmidt,
  • Marek K. Sliwinski,
  • Nalin C. W. Goonesekere

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ph14030209
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 3
p. 209

Abstract

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The high mortality rate for pancreatic cancer (PC) is due to the lack of specific symptoms at early tumor stages and a high biological aggressiveness. Reliable biomarkers and new therapeutic targets would help to improve outlook in PC. In this study, we analyzed the expression of GNMT in a panel of pancreatic cancer cell lines and in early-stage paired patient tissue samples (normal and diseased) by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR). We also investigated the effect of 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-β-d-glucopyranoside (PGG) as a therapeutic agent for PC. We find that GNMT is markedly downregulated (p 50 value of 12 ng/mL, and PGG upregulates GNMT expression in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, our data show that GNMT has promise as a biomarker and as a therapeutic target for PC.

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